Calibur World
by darkwings13
Summary: And then Amy and Raphael created their new world... Too bad it wasn't the world Raphael had in mind. Join Raphael, Amy and the rest of the Soul Calibur characters in this new crazy but fun world. Will include many pairings as well.
1. A New World

Darkwings13: I do not own soul calibur or the characters.

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><p>Ostrheinsburg Castle Throne Room<p>

"Muhahaha! Hahaha!" laughed Raphael manically. "This world truly belongs only to Amy and me now. Ouch!" Raphael turned around to see who had poked him, which caused him to almost tumble into pit below. "Amy! Why did you do that?"

Amy was a little disappointed he didn't fall in the hole, he kinda deserved it for always leaving her alone in that big castle so she wanted to play a little joke on him. "That's for taking forever to find Soul Calibur. And what world are you talking about? You've just killed two of our maids and then you went into evil laughing mode."

Raphael shook his head at Amy's ignorance. "Amy! There's no one here besides us. That's why this world truly belongs to us now."

Giving a big sigh of exasperation she shoved a heavy textbook under her father's nose. "You didn't read the Soul Calibur manual Marienbard gave you, did you."

Raphael read the title of the book printed in bold rainbow colors. 'A Guide to Using Soul Calibur for Morons'.

Crossing her arms, she gave her father the 'look'. "And that's why nothing was happening. I'd be pretty mad if this world you've been promising me was… nothing."

Taking out some spectacles from his pocket, Raphael began skimming through the book. "Aha! It says here you're suppose to hold on to the hilt of the sword with both hands, turn to the left at a forty degrees angle, balance on one leg, jump backwards three rabbit jumps, do the moon walk, sing 'My Hips Don't Lie' by Shakira, and then you're suppose to imagine what your new world is suppose to look like and it'll happen!"

Amy looked at her father quizzically and asks, "Are you sure that's what it said?"

He pointed at chapter five hundred and twelve and showed her the chapter title which said 'How to Make a New World.' Closing the book and throwing it aside, he rubbed his hand eagerly for the ceremony that'll create their new world.

Many hours later…

"Argh! I can't take it anymore! Father! You're a terrible singer! Not to mention, you keep messing up the lyrics!" cried Amy, trying to shut out her father's singing by clamping her hands tightly over her ears.

Raphael had been able to follow all the steps perfectly (he nearly moon walk into the hole) until he got to the part where he had to sing My Hips Don't Lie by Shakira. "Be quiet Amy, this is harder that it looks. Let me try again. Oh, my hips don't lie, lalalala," sang Raphael. He had to admit that he wasn't doing a very good job, but hey, he was trying. This was even harder that defeating Siegfried and that was saying something since the sunlight kept reflecting off his stupid shiny crystal armor and Raphael kept getting blinded by the random flashes of light. And that stupid long hair kept whipping him in the face whenever he got close so in the end, Raphael swung his Flambert and chop off a bunch of the blondie's hair. The memory of Siegfried crying like a girl to brought a smile to his face.

"Ahhh! Give me the sword, I'll do it myself dad. I think you've killed my sense of hearing by eighty percent!" Grabbing the sword out of her father's hand, (she's stronger that she looks) Amy began repeating the steps in the book. Unlike her father, Amy had a great voice and she sang the song perfectly and gave her father a triumphant grin.

"Hey! I paid for those singing lessons," Raphael protested. He had to give up shopping for a month to pay for them too. Ahh, it was a long month indeed. He had to turn down Ivy's and Taki's shopping trips twice. Cassandra and her sister felt sorry for him so they bought him ice cream. French vanilla of course. Talim offered to buy him something on her shopping trip with Xianghua and Seong Mina but she ended up buying a really weird outfit. She said he could wear it for Halloween and be Batman. He knew that she meant well but he burned the outfit as soon as he found a match.

Amy closed her eyes and began imagining their new world. "This is going to be awesome!" Amy thought to herself. A blue aura started to surround her and Soul Calibur emitted a radiant neon color that blinded Voldo standing outside a mile away. The fact that Voldo got blinded (isn't he already blind?) meant that Raphael lost his sight for the rest of the ritual. When The Lord of the Night finally blinked away the neon blue color, he gasped. "YOU MADE DISNEYWORLD!?"

Smiling at her father, Amy corrected him. "Nope, I now call it… CALIBUR WORLD!"

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><p>Darkwings13: I wanted to take a little break from my other Soul Calibur story, so I decided to write a humorous one about Raphael's and Amy new world. I don't think this is what Raphael had in mind for his new world but he'll just have to bear it for now. The next chapter will have many of the calibur crew in it so please wait patiently for me to type it up. I'm not really sure if I have a sense of humor so if it's not funny then feel free to tell me.<p> 


	2. Differing Viewpoints

Sitting at his desk, Raphael began reading the complaint and thank you letters about his/Amy's new world. A world where everyone now knows about the cast of Soul Calibur and where they're all apparently superstars and the fact that his castle and his land was the biggest amusement park/theme park called Soul Land. In fact, all the stages from all the soul calibur games were incorporated into to it, which Raphael would've thought impossible, but with Soul Calibur, the impossible became the possible( in a messed up sot of way).

In fact, there were plenty of people touring around Soul Land right now, going on rides, getting autographs from the character mascots, (his servants were dressed up as mascots under Amy's orders),etc. The only good thing was that he was making alot of money, which meant he could buy some more really fancy outfits and brag about it. Shaking his head to try and clear away his daydreams about winning 'The Best Dressed Male Soul Calibur Character', Raphael resumed his boring task of reading the first letter, which was from Mitsurugi.

Yo Sorel,

What the hell were you thinking man! How the heck am I going to find new opponents to fight in this wacky new world of yours! Everything is so messed up! I was fighting in the war between Japan and Korea, and the next thing I know, I was surrounded by a million people who wants my autograph! When I find you, I'm gonna make you change things back to the way they were. Prepared to fight to the death French man!"

Your very angry samurai,

Mitsurugi

Leaning back, Raphael gave a sigh of despair. Change things back to the way they were? He wish he could, but unfortunately, the answer was no. Looking for another 'A Guide to Using Soul Calibur' textbook (because he threw the first one away), he finally found it on sale for fifty thousand dollars on Soulbay. Another good thing that came with Amy's new world was the advanced technology so Raphael finally had a laptop. It took him awhile to figure how it worked but in the end, he managed to set his Soul Calibur Broken Destiny picture as the wallpaper for his laptop. He's now also able to type ten words per minute, which was a drastic improvement to his old record of one and a half word per minute.

Anyway, after forking his shopping money over to buy the book, Raphael was dismayed to find out that he had to wait at least a month before he can use Soul Calibur to make another new world. This was a very long time to wait and he was starting to get very annoyed at the fact that his castle looks like it came out from some fairytale book. For heaven sake, there were fireworks exploding over his castle every few minutes! Picking up the next letter, which was from Cervantes, he began reading it.

To the wretch who created this stupid world,

I was sailing in the middle of Spanish waters when a sudden flash of neon blue light teleported me, my crew and my ship to your so called Soul Land! Much to my horror, you've turned my ship into a amusement ride! All of my ghostly crew has been turned into statues as well! When I find a way off this ship, I'm going to eat your soul!

The currently stranded pirate,

Cervantes de Leon

Raphael peeked out from his window to see the dead pirate waving his long sword and pistol sword at him on top of their new ride 'The Seven Seas Ship' which was about a mile from the ground. The good news was that the pirate was too far away to inflict any damage to him so Raphael couldn't resist sticking his tongue out at Cervantes. The bad news was that Cervantes decided to shoot Raphael's head off with his pistol sword and Raphael ended up with a very broken window. Returning to the safety of his desk, he picked up another letter and began reading.

Dear Raphael Sorel,

Can you get me and my sisters some discount family tickets? Sophitia promised her kids that she would bring them to Soul Land to enjoy some family fun time with them and I thought I would try to help out by getting the entrance tickets. Rothion said he would consider forging you a weapon if you do. By the way, this is a great world! I finally have time to spend with my sisters now that she's not controlled by Soul Edge anymore.

A very happy sister,

Cassandra

Well, at least there were some people who didn't want to kill him. Taking another letter from his letter mountain, he opened it.

Hey worm,

Thanks to you, I now have no time to myself at all! I hate this new world, what were you thinking! Everything is so ordered and perfect that it makes me want vomit. I was made by the God of War, how can I live in this world of yours! With all these weird new machines and stuff, Ashlotte has been able to track me down faster than before since I'm always broadcast on T.V now! And my plans to destroy Ares is ruined thanks to you! When I find you, you're so going get it maggot.

The furious golem,

Astaroth

Great, Astaroth just called him a disgusting bug. How many more letters of endless complaints must he endure? He was seriously starting to hate Soul Calibur for making this new world by now. Deciding to read one last letter before retiring to bed, he picked up another one and read it.

Hey Sorel,

This is from Kilik. At first, I didn't know what to think about this new world of yours but I've finally reached a conclusion. I love it! I thought I wouldn't be able to train anymore since my training ground got turned into some tourist attraction (my master's not very happy about that by the way) but now I'm getting more exercise than ever. I have so many fangirls that keeps chasing me that I can now run as fast as an ostrich! Maxi sends his gratitude as well since the amount of people that knows him instead of Elvis rapidly increased.

P.S Xianghua's not too happy though. She wants to kill you because I never spend time with her anymore since I'm always running away from fangirls now. Oh and sorry if the writings messy, I'm currently running while writing this.

Your friend, who's foreva training,

Kilik

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><p>After saying goodnight to Amy, he brushed his teeth and changed into a pair of comfy pajamas. Jumping into bed, wrapped in his baby bat blanket, and eating chocolate cookies, Raphael was flipping through the channels on his new T.V looking for something to watch. He flipped through the weather channel that was now apparently hosted by Talim, who was saying something about the wind and he finally stopped at the Soul Calibur news channel which was hosted by Zasalamel who was wearing a suit. Looking at the camera with his one normal eye and his other gold eye, he spoke in a rather unhappy tone of voice. "I hope there'll be some happy news to listen to," thought Raphael.<p>

The camera zoomed into Zasalamel, and he began speaking in a very angry voice. "As you all know, the world has been greatly changed. Those of you who are Soul Calibur characters, who are currently listening, please continue to listen. We need to travel to Raphael's Soul Land and turn things back to the way they were." With flashing eyes, he shouted the sentence that was poking him deep and painfully in the soul ever since this new world was created. "BECAUSE THIS WAS TOTALLY NOT THE WORLD I HAD SEEN IN MY VISION. THE WORLD I SAW WAS WAY #$# % BETTER THAN THIS! THIS IS JUST $#%#$^ & *#$^#$&%^&^%*&(^& $%$% $ %^&^*$^*$((%^&#%^ $! %#$^%&!"

A message saying technical difficulties appeared on the screen for five minutes. Sitting there blankly, Raphael slowly munched on another cookie while waiting. Finally, the screen returned to normal with a calmer but still kinda scary Zasalamel. "My apologies, back to the news, Cervantes de Leon is currently stuck onboard his ship in Soul Land. And Kilik has reached a world record for the most distance traveled on foot in a day. And that's all for today. Now, returning to my earlier comment, for those of you who want the world to return back to normal, head over to Soul Land tomorrow with your weapons sharpened and wear the scariest and fiercest expression you can make. For those of you who like this new world, you should also travel over to Soul Land to prevent us from killing Raphael, in a horribly slow and painful way. If you're listening to this Raphael, prepare yourself..." Zasalamel dramatically whipped out his scythe, and in slow motion, accompanied with some scary epic organ music playing in the background, he sliced the camera in two and the screen turned black.

Raphael jumped when his theme song 'Endless Warfare' suddenly played and Raphael fell off his bed in his haste to look out his window, expecting some kind of battle to be taking place since that song always played when the army of Wallachia tried to attack his castle. Seeing that everything was peaceful and that all the tourists and customers had left, he walked back to his bed in his green baby bat pajamas.

The song suddenly played again and he realized that it was his ringtone for his new cellphone. Grabbing his cellphone from his bedside table, he flipped it open to see that he had a million text messages on there. Half of them were from fangirls which he deleted (Tira's stupid birds have been stalking everyone and telling her their contact information which she told Nightmare who's selling the information off to make money for some unknown but probably sinister reason). The other half was from the rest of the Soul Calibur crew. Some said they wanted to kill him, and some said they would be on his side tomorrow. The last message was from Amy (who was a few rooms away from him) who told him to stop eating the chocolate cookies since it'll make him fat and be forever along. Also, she bought them so she wanted to eat them for once.

Turning off the lights, Raphael crawled into bed and fell asleep with his stuffed animal beside him. He would deal with tomorrow when tomorrow comes. After his breakfast of syrup covered pancakes and bacon of course.

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><p>Darkwings13: What's going to happen next? Who will be on Raphael's side? Will he able to deal with the situation after he had breakfast or will his breakfast be interrupted? Read and review until I type up the next chapter.<p> 


	3. Confrontation

Sending a quick text message, Raphael smiled at the response and he pocketed his Blackberry. Pouring an unhealthy amount of syrup on his pancakes, he was about to dig into his breakfast when Amy suddenly kicked open the door to the dining room and looked at her father angrily.

Raphael stared at his daughter and she merely stared back. This turned into a staring competition that last for five mins before his eyes started burning and he groaned. "What is it Amy? Can't you see I'm trying to have a healthy and relaxing breakfast?"

She merely pointed out the window and gave him a –hurry up and look already- look.

Putting his fork and knife down, he walked over to the window and gasped. A big van was parked outside the gate to his house/Soul Land. Could it be the people who wanted to kill him for making this new world? He stroked his chin thoughtfully and decided that at least Cervantes couldn't really do anything since he's trapped on his ship which was a mile from the ground. He had banned all of his servants from touching that ride so there was no way the undead pirate can get down and kill him which meant he had one least enemy to deal with. To his amazement, another van parked beside the previous one and the occupants inside started chucking random objects at each other through the window. He thought he saw Hilde throwing a golf club at somebody."Well, I must say I'm quite surprised Amy. I wonder who could be in those vans."

Amy joined him beside the window and said, "They're obviously the rest of the Soul Calibur crew."

"How do you know?"

His daughter sighed and pointed to the giant words painted on the vans. Soul Calibur.

"Oh, I see. But what seems to be the problem Amy?" Raphael asked curiously.

"Father! Soul Land opens in thirty minutes, how are our customers going to get through with those guys parked in front of the gate!" Amy explained grumpily.

Raphael merely shrugged. "Let the servants handle it. I'm going back to my breakfast."

But before he could return to his chair, Amy grabbed his cape. "Oh I don't think so father, I watched the news you know. You're going to go down and settle things as the man you are." She gave a shrill whistle and a servant ran in with a wheelbarrow. Snapping her fingers, two more servants entered and they dumped Raphael unceremoniously into the wheelbarrow and they wheeled him out. "AMY!" shouted Raphael. What happened to the sweet little girl he used to know? Oh yeah, puberty happened… Dang it!

As they servants put him down about five feet away from the gate, Raphael stood there and burned. Not burn as in burning in fire or burning in rage. He as just sweating and his skin was just rather sensitive to the sunlight since he's a vampire and it was about eight in the morning. He made a note to buy some sunscreen later if he survived the encounter with the rest of the Soul Calibur crew. Whipping out his Flambert, he strolled toward the gate confidently. Those fools can't possibly get him with the gate locked so as long as he doesn't open them, he's safe.

As he stepped in front of the gate, he was going to yell out his name since that's what important people with impressive titles do. But before he could do that, one of the vans honked their horns really loudly and it made him go deaf for a few minutes. The people from that van stormed out and he was dismayed to see Mitsurugi, Nightmare, Tira, Astaroth, Taki, Lizardman, Yun-Seong, Seong-Mina, Rock, Hwang, Xianghua,

Zasalamel, and Voldo. They were all wearing some really scary and angry expressions and as they headed toward him and they looked like they were saying/shouting at him but he couldn't really hear anything so he merely made a put one hand over his ear and made the gesture that he couldn't hear anything.

"Wind!" A gust of powerful wind blew past him and it nearly tipped him over but he found that he could hear again. He knew instantly who that was and he waved. "Thanks Talim! It's good to see you."

Talim exited the other bus along with Siegfried (who had a new haircut since Raphael chopped off his long hair), Hilde, Cassandra, Sophitia, Maxi, Kilik, Setsuka, Yoshimitsu, and Ivy. If things get messy and a battle ensues, both sides would have an even number since he counted himself and Amy. The two opposing team stared at each other and finally, Zasalamel cleared his throat and said, "I would like the leaders of each team to step forward and start talking since I don't have time to waste."

"But dude, don't you like, live forever?" asked Yun-Seong.

Zasalamel raised his scythe threateningly and said, "What's your point?"

Seong-Mina elbowed her fellow Korean in the stomach and said, "It nothing, he's just mumbling to himself. Just ignore him."

Zasalamel turned around and gestured for the two leaders to approach the centre. As predicted, the leaders were Siegfried and Nightmare. They came forth and glared at each with extreme hatred. This turned into a starting contest that Nightmare won because when his eyes started watering, he used his Soul Edge as a replacement, Siegfried got creeped out at staring at the giant eyeball on the sword and he lost. The fact that Tira was staring at him with a creepy smile on her face was not helping either.

"Hey you! Stop staring at my boyfriend!" Hilde shouted angrily.

Tira merely giggle and said, "Ewww, I don't think about your boyfriend that way. I was just thinking how yummy his soul would be. Then me and Nighty can have a romantic dinner with him as the main course."

Everyone stared at her, including Nightmare. Mitsurugi inched over to the Azure Knight and said, "So why do you let her follow you around?"

Nightmare whispered back, "She's a pretty useful servant. And, after Ivy left, I sorta needed a right hand woman. You know, the game producers thought that would help the game sell more. That's like the only reason they let Hilde join the crew, so that Siegfriend would have a right hand girl as well."

A gold club flew through the air and smacked Nightmare on the head. "I heard that punk! For my honour, I will be victorious!" Who knew Hilde was so short tempered, but anway, she leapt on top of Nightmare's back and began whacking him with her lance and sword.

"Hey! Don't you dare touch my Nighty! I'll do the same thing to blondie here!" cried Tira as she charged toward Siegfried.

The knight's last thought before the crazy girl jumped on him was "Don't touch my hair!"

For some strange psychological reason, whenever the leaders start fighting (or in this case they're sort of being kicked around) the rest of their teammates usually go into battle mode and fight as well. To make things short, it was rather chaotic as punches flew, someone got kicked in a certain area, and there was plenty of catfights and hair pulling between the women. Finally, Zasalamel was the first one to regain his senses and he shouted "EVERYONE! STOP MOVING OR I'LL HAVE YOU ALL SUCKED INTO MY BLACK HOLE!"

Everyone frozed in midmotion; including Taki who was somehow launching a kick midair. "How are you doing that?" asked Rock.

"That's a secret ninja technique that I cannot reveal," and Taki returned to the ground. Everyone than looked at Zasalamel with absolute attention, since they were afraid of his deadly critical finish where he summons a black hole and warps them to places they don't want to find out. Ever.

Clearing his throat Zasalamel proceeded to speak. "I would like to remind everyone here that the reason we're here is to give Raphael Sorel a quick and painful death if he doesn't agree to change this world back to normal. So will you people-"

"Hsshh" interrupted Voldo.

"What the heck is he saying?" said Hwang, who spoke for everyone that wondering the same question.

Astaroth translated, "He said, you mean the Raphael that opened the gate for those other guys while we were busy paying attention to Zasalamel. That Raphael? Oh and he's also calling a tow truck to tow away our van." Everyone just had stared at Astaroth with a stupefied expression on their face.

"You can translate all that?" exclaimed Xianghua.

"Guys! Look! They're towing away our van!" Seong-Mina shouted. Everyone turned to see the tow truck towing away their van, along with all their food and supplies inside.

Yun-Seong began weeping. "No! My iPod's in there! You'll pay for this Raphael!" Everyone there that hated Raphael felt their hatred multiply be tenfold and they charged the gate. Behind the gate, Raphael stood there safely, along with the rest of his Soul Calbur buddies that liked this new world. "Hah, pathetic! You'll never get me now."

Shaking the gate, Xianghua shouted to Kilik who was standing beside Raphael, "Kilik! Open these gates at once! If you don't, we're so breaking up!"

"I'm sorry Xianghua, but I really don't understand why you hate this world so much. I'll open the gate at once if you join our side."

"Are you crazy! Ever since that idiot vampire made this world, I hardly ever get to see you since you're always running away from those fangirls! I had to change my email and address ten times in the past few days since I've received enough hate mails (from kilik's fangirls) to last five of Zasalamel's lifetimes! Open this gate at once!" And Xianghua began shaking the bars on the gate even harder. "Maxi! Open this stupid gate!"

But Maxi mouthed –sorry- and shook his head.

Meanwhile, Yun-Seong was reaching out to Talim and basically saying the same thing as Xianghua. "Tal! Open up! Are we friends or what?"

"I'm sorry Yun-Seong, but Raphael promised me twenty free tickets to Soul Land if I help him," Talim said sheepishly.

By this time, Seong-Mina joined in as well, crushed between Hwang and Yun-Seong. "What in the world are you going to do with, ouch! Get off my foot!" She elbowed Lizardman in the stomach and turned back to Talim. "What are you going to do with twenty free tickets!"

Fiddling with one of pigtails, Talim said, "Oh those tickets are for those orphans back at the watermill village. I promised them I would take them to Soul Land but the tickets were too expensive since Raphael charged a thousand bucks each. But then he texted me early this morning and said he'd give them to me for free if I joined his side so here I am. And the wind doesn't really have a problem with this new world. My whole village is now powered by wind energy and we now have T.V and stuff so we're happy."

Raphael was glad that some people actually liked this new world and he and Talim did their secret handshake. "That's right Yun- whatever your name is. She's my buddy now, muhaha."

"Open this gate like a man, you French dandy!" And Mitsurugi brandished his katana menacingly.

Setsuka drew her umbrella and said, "Believe me, if he does open the gate for you, I'll kill you before you take the second step inside."

"If you manage to kill me with that umbrella, then I'll marry you. And believe me; both of those things will never happen," and the samurai continued shaking the gate angrily.

Setsuka was about to say something but then two big giants interrupted her.

"Everyone stand back!" Everyone, including those behind the gate, took a few steps back. Rock and Astaroth were holding their giant axe(Astaroth) and giant mace (Rock) in their hand and it looked like they were about to smash through the gate.

Siegfried siddled up to Raphael and said, "Look here man, I don't like you. The only reason I'm on your side is because I'm never going to be on Nightmare's side. So if they smash through, I'm ditching."

Raphael merely smirked. "Well, let's see if they can smash through then."

Letting out a battle roar/cry/yell, Astaroth and Rock charged toward the gate and... they didn't smash through. Instead, they hit a force field and bounced backward onto Nightmare who shouted, "Get off me!"

"Hey got off my Nighty!" and Tira yanked the two giants off her master/boyfriend.

"Why couldn't we smash through?" Astaroth asked with a puzzled expression on his face. He only skipped three days of working out; it couldn't have affected him that much could it?

Laughing at his thunderstruck enemies, Raphael answered their question. "If there's one good thing about those Star Wars guest characters, it's the new force field they've installed for me. And all I did was tell Darth Vader was that I was on the 'dark side' and he agreed to install it. So long suckers!" And Raphael sauntered off with his comrades.

"What are we going to do now?" Hwang asked.

Nightmare turned to the Korean dude and said, "Why are you guys on our side anyway? I would've thought that you'd be on the other side."

Yun-Seong pointed to Mina to explain. She brushed some hair away from her face and sighed. "Thanks to Raphael's new world, I'm kinda in the same situation as Kilik. And my father's been pressuring me more than ever to pick a husband already. I mean, come one. If I rejected Hwang, what makes him think I'll go for those prebubescent boys who drool when they see me walk by."

"Your clothing is alittle revealing," Yun-Seong pointed out.

She merely responded by cracking him on the head with her halberd.

"So what about you boys?" Taki asked.

Hwang crossed his arms and replied, "Me, Mina and Yun-Seong were fighting in the war between Japan and Korea and if I must say, we were doing pretty good. That promotion I've been working towards, coughfor2yearscough, was hanging pretty much in front of my eyes. But as you can see, with this new world, the war was put to halt along with my promotion."

Yun-Seong nodded. "Yeah, I was going to prove myself as well and show everyone that I was just as good if not even better than Hwang, but this happened and the only thing I proved was that-."

"I'd hate to interrupt this very extremely interesting conversation but I think we have bigger fishes to fry. In this case, it would be a very annoying bat," said Zasalamel.

"Hshhhhssh Hshssh shhh?" hiss Voldo.

Everyone turned toward Astaroth to translate.

"He said, but we can't get through the force field using force. How are we going to get in?" explained Astaroth.

Everyone looked toward the brain of the group for a plan. Zasalamel golden eye flashed as he thought of a plan. "We'll just sneak in and crash the party. Who's with me?"

"Go team DRAW!" shouted Nightmare.

"Shhish?" said Lizardman. There's really no need for a translator since everyone knew what he asked since the same question was on everyone's mind.

"What? It stands for Destroy Raphael's Annoying World? How come no one got that?"Nightmare said confusedly.

Everyone resumed cheering and they looked at Soul Land with an evil smile. Raphael is going down. Along with his annoying new world.

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><p>Darkinwings13: Well, it's been some time since I've updated so please accept my humblest apology. But I've uploaded my bonuslast chapter to my other Soul Calibur story this morning which is finally complete so I will now have time to work on this one. Thanks for reading. Review if you feel like it.


	4. Spying, Sneaking and Suprises

Sitting in Raphael's secret laboratory/security spying room underneath his castle, everyone looked at the big projection screen that was displaying their enemies every action. Too bad they couldn't hear anything since Raphael was still trying to install the sound system. "Hey Raphael, can you hurry up and install the stupid thing already. I want to hear what Mitsurugi's saying," said Setsuka impatiently.

Maxi agreed wholeheartedly as well. "Yeah, I want to know what that freak Astaroth is saying too."

Raphael poked his head from under the computer table and gave the two an annoyed look. "Well, it would help if you guys pitched in instead of sitting there and eating all of my popcorn." Everyone, except for Raphael, merely shrugged and resumes eating their popcorn and watching the projection screen.

"Could someone fetch me that red electric plug over there?" Raphael mumbled from under the table.

"Here you go," said Ivy as she used her snake sword to grab the wire from across the room and hand it over to Raphael. Well, to be specific, it kinda flew through the air and hit the French man on the face.

Sitting beside Ivy,Yoshimitsu asked," Not to be rude, but why are thou on Raphael's side in this battle?"

She merely grinned and pointed to one of the computer screen monitoring the activity of Soul Land depicting the image of Cervantes strolling around his ship angrily. "Thanks to Raphael, Cervantes is about a hundred feet from the ground. Why wouldn't I be on this side?"

Yoshimitsu nodded understandingly and they resumed watching Raphael struggle to disentangle himself from the electric cords.

Meanwhile, Cassandra, Sophitia, Hilde and Siegfried were conversing with each other on how to spend their day at Soul Land. "I think I'll look around and make a map on where the best rides are so I can bring Pyrrha and Patroklos later," Sophitia said happily. "Thanks to those discount tickets Cassandra got for me, I can finally take my children on some family fun time."

"It was nothing Sophitia, after all, we're sisters right." And the two sisters hugged.

Hilde and Siegfried sighed at the sisterly love and wished that they had siblings as well. "Isn't it beautiful Siegfried?"

The knight nodded and hugged his girlfriend. "So, what do you want to do in Soul Land Hilde?"

The princess took a few seconds to think about it and she shrugged. "I definitely want to enter that dueling competition that's supposed to take place sometime today or tomorrow. As for the rest of the day, let's just walk around and see what come up."

On the other side of the room, Amy and Talim were listening to music and they would compare their songs on their iPods. "No, I like the song Calibur gurls more than-" Suddenly, Amy's cellphone vibrated and she flipped it open to see who was calling. "Hello? Oh it's you, yep, ok,ok, you can drop the package at the gate. Don't worry about the idiots standing in front of it. Ok, bye then. Your paycheck should be delivered tomorrow." Snapping her phone shut, she turned to her father and said, "You should hurry up father. Something good is going to happen."

"I'm trying ouch!" The vampire got zapped alittle and when he came out from under his table, his face was alittle blackened, his hair was standing up straight and he smelled alittle burned. He gave a short cough and smoke spewed out. But it looked like the sound system was successfully installed since they could hear every word that was coming out of Zasalamel's mouth. Too bad he had already finished discussing his plan with his group so they didn't catch much.

"So is everyone clear on the plan?"

Everyone nodded. "I shall begin then," said Taki. She used her secret ninja skill to disappear and infiltrate the force field. As she got passed the shield, which cannot be explained since its classified ninja secrets, she used her throwing ninja stars to take out the surveillance camera and quickly hide behind a tree to observe her surroundings.

It seems that she was standing beside the haunted house of Soul Land. She peered at the name which said, 'House of Souls' and a mini warning sign said, 'Enter, if you wish to throw away your soul.' Whatever, she had more important things to do. Like find a way to dismantle the force field system so that the rest of teammates can get in. Rolling away dramatically, she went ninja style and began searching.

"Hey! One of the surveillance camera's broken!" Cassandra pointed out.

Raphael stroked his chin thoughtfully. The only explanation for the broken camera is…. "I guess it was just a bad camera. I'm going to have to return it and get a refund."

"Are you sure that someone didn't break it?" asked Hilde suspiciously.

"Oh course I'm sure. Now, let's turn our attention back to the screen and see what those idiots are up to," gestured Raphael. Siegfried left to get some more popcorns but everyone resumed watching.

From the way things look,Zasalamel and team DRAW stood there impatiently and watched as normal and random soul calibur character creations walked past them, got through the force field easily, and bought their tickets at the ticket booth up ahead, and pass through the second gate. "Hey! How come they can get through?" Yun-Seong shouted.

The servant behind the booth answered, "Because they have no murderous intention toward the master. This force field was built to prevent those who wanted to assassinate/drown/burn/strangle/'insert other death words here' the master from entering."

"Wow, I can't say if Raphael's smart or just paranoid," said Mitsurugi.

In the secret laboratory, Raphael eyes narrowed angrily. "How dare that no good, terrible hair, unshaven samurai insult me!"

Amy gave her father a few pat on the arm and said, "It's okay father. They're going to be receiving a nasty surprise very soon."

The nasty surprise came in the form of a very big packaged dropped from the sky as a helicopter flew past. A tall crate smashed down and some splinters flew into Nightmare's eyes. Which was a pretty slim chance since he was covered in armor. "Ahh! My eyes!"

"Hold on, Nighty! I'll get my watchers to peck it out for you." Tira gave a shrill whistle and her ravens flew toward Nightmare who quickly tried to run away but since he couldn't see anything, he slammed into a tree.

"Vshfhhsh? (It's that just going to make it worse? I mean, what if they peck out his eyes?)," Voldo pointed out to Tira.

Astaroth was going to translate but then his eyes widened in surprise at the person who stepped out of the crate. "Ashlotte?"

The doll merely drew her weapon and faced the golem. "Do not run and make this any harder for yourself. I shall fulfill my goals and-"before Ashlotte can finish however, Astaroth ran away from her and made it through the force field and smashed through the second gate. This made four people very unhappy. The first one would be Ashlotte since she has to continue chasing down the giant, the second person was the ticket booth guy since Astaroth went in without buying a ticket, the third person/group would be his teammates since they want to get in as well, and the last person was Raphael.

"How the hell did he get in? Is the force field malfunctioning?" screamed the vampire hysterically.

Ivy pursed her lips and came up with a very intelligent hypothesis. "I'm assuming the force filed did not work because Astaroth had no thoughts of killing you when he ran past it. The only thing on his mind was to probably try and get away from Ashlotte as fast as possible."

Kilik rushed toward the vampire and forced him to hold still and be calm. "Calm down man, look into my eyes and breathe. Breathe, breathe…. Breathe. Hey, he's not breathing! Someone help!"

Talim quickly rushed forward and called on the power of the wind to force air into Raphael's lungs. "Wind!"

The vampire felt his lungs expand and he thought he was going to blow up if she kept that up.

"I think you can stop now Talim," Maxi said worriedly. "It looks like he's going to explode."

The wind priestess stopped and Raphael let out a long whoosh of air. "Whoosh" whooshed Raphael.

"I think thou should have some breath mints," and Yoshimitsu quickly handed the man some breath mints.

"I do not have bad breath! I just got mildly electrocuted and some smoke is still coming out!" But Raphael popped some of the mints in his mouth anyway. He pushed Kilik out of the way and looked at one of the computer screen to see where Astaroth was headed. It looked like he was running blindly into the tunnel maze that led to several different locations, with Ashlotte running closely behind. "They can only end up in three places, the Molten Lava Stage(Yoshimitsu's stage) where a tour is currently taking place, the Underground Buddhist Stage (Taki's stage) where a scary story telling event is supposed to happen soon, and the last place would be Astaroth's stage; the Kunpatku Shrine where there's a buffet going on."

Sophitia gave him a confused expression and said, "That's the place you chose to have a buffet?"

Amy answered that question for her father. "Well, in Soul Calibur 4 there were lizardmen with forks and knives there so we just stuck to the theme. You can enjoy your food while the lizardmen look at you hungrily." Seeing the look on the rest of the Soul Calibur crew, Amy added, "Don't worry, they won't eat you. We've actually turned them into waiters. Today's special is Meat on the Bone."

"Maybe that's why Lizardman is on the other side. I'd be pretty mad if my men got turned into waiters," Maxi whispered to Kilik. His friend nodded in agreement.

Raphael clapped his hand for their attention. "Now's not the time to get distracted. I'll need someone to fight along Ashlotte and help her capture Astaroth. Who's going to volunteer?"

Everyone immediately looked away and Cassandra even started whistling. "Why don't we see how things turn out before we do that. After all, Ashlotte would stand a pretty good chance of defeating Astaroth," Talim said.

"Yes, Talim made a very logical argument. We should definitely wait and see how things work out first before we get too hasty," agreed Ivy.

"Hey guys, is that Algol?" and Siegfried pointed to the large projection screen showing Algol driving an expensive race car with his son Arcturus, and his new adoptive daughter Kamikirimusi (whose name is too long so we'll just call her Kami for short).

Talim peered closely at the screen and gasped. "Is that Link!"

Hilde also gasped with her. "Is that Scheherazade?"

Everyone looked at the screen and nodded. Link and Scheherazade were cruising behind Algol in their green Ferrari and wearing sunglasses for some weird reason. They ran back to their seats and observed as Zasalamel stepped in front of the car. Algol had to slam down on the brakes really hard to avoid running over the gold eye man.

"Are you crazy? You could've died!" Algol shouted.

It didn't really matter to Zasalamel since he could always reincarnate. So he turned to the important question at hand."Why is the hero king here? Don't tell me you're on Raphael's side?" Zasalamel eyes flashed dangerously. Things would be very bad for his team if Algol turned out to be an enemy.

Arcturus spoke up for his father. "No, we're on neither side. We're just here for some family fun you know. My sis," Arcturus gestured to the oni girl who was sitting behind him, "saw the T.V ad for Soul Land on T.V and we decided to come here."

"I'll destroy anyone that gets in the way of my family fun time," Algol said threateningly.

Zasalamel knew that it was his cue to either move or get squished so he stepped aside. He turned to green car behind and winced as all of his men and women were holding on and trying to stop the Ferrari from moving.

"Hyah! (What are you people doing!)" Link shouted angrily as he stepped on the gas some more. But with the combined weight of Mitsurugi, Nightmare, Tira, Lizardman, Yun-Seong, Seong-Mina, Rock, Hwang, Xianghua, the car was not going anywhere.

Scheherazade was very annoyed by now and she kicked open the door, which hit Hwang in a certain sensitive area and the poor Korean guy moaned in pain. Stepping out, she addressed Nightmare in a very irritated tone of voice, "What do you want! Make it quick or else."

"Umm, we, uh…" Nightmare siddled over to Xianghua and whispered, "why were we stopping them again?"

For some reason, Tira turned into her gloomy mode and took over for her boyfriend. "Are you on Raphael's side?"

"Hyah! Yah! (No, me and my cousin are just here for our vacation. Those elven leaders finally gave us some time to chill and now we're being bothered by you people!" Link explained gruffly.

Too bad the only thing Tira could understand was the 'Yah' part so she said, "Then prepare to die!"

"Hyah, shah yah (Get in the car cousin!"

Scheherazade quickly got into the car and slammed it shut on Nightmare's weird demented arm. "Ahh! My arm!"

The elf girl repeatedly slams the door on his hand until he let go and fell backward. Meanwhile, Link had prepared his bomb. Lighting it, he opened the window and threw it out. Slamming his foot down on the accelerator, he accelerated out of there.

"Guys! It's Link's special bomb that he keeps using in Soul Calibur 2," shouted Seong-Mina.

Everyone ran for it as Link's bomb exploded. The only thing audible was someone yelling "My hair's on fire!"

Siegfried and Maxi winced and touched their own beautiful hair that was not on fire. Anyway, there was too smoke to see anything clearly and Raphael's groupies stared at the screen with great anticipation at what would happen next.

* * *

><p>Darkwings13: Hehe, I enjoyed writing this chapter. When Amy and Talim were comparing songs and one of them said I like the song Calibur gurls, it's a reference to Katty Perry song California gurls. That song was playing over and over in my head for some weird reason. Anyway, I'm going to be busy for awhile but I'll try to upload the next chapter as soon as possible. Please be patient.<p> 


	5. Teams

As the smoke started to clear, they could see the poor unfortunate soul who had their hair catch on fire. Yun-Seong. The guy ran around screaming and the rest of his team mates tried to help him douse out the fire through some rather unusual and painful methods. "Hold on Yun-Seong! I'll put that out!" Mina cried as she began bashing his head with her halberd.

"Mina! I think that would work better if you were using a wet mop or something," shouted Hwang. " Hold on buddy, I'll save you!" With great skill and precision, Hwang cut off the burning hair and at the same time, he gave Yun-Seong the worst haircut in history.

"My hair! YOU BASTARD!" and Yun-Seong began pummeling Hwang. No one did anything because they were holding their stomachs and roaring with laughter at Yun-Seong's new haircut.

Back at the laboratory, Maxi had set up a little gambling station where they were betting on who would win. Siegfried put down a fifty for Hwang."I think Hwang would win, I mean, the guy's older and more experienced."

"I've never see Yun-Seong so mad. I think he'll win." Talim threw down a fifty as well.

After everyone threw down their bets, they resumed watching the fight and eating peaniuts and drinking beer.

"That' enough guys!" yelled Seong-Mina as she pulled the two guys apart. Raphael's group booed at the interruption.

She tossed Yun-Seong a green bandanna. "Wear that, no one will be able to see that haircut off yours. See, problem solved."

"I'm not a fricking pirate!" Yun-Seong objected.

Nightmare shrugged. "It's either a pirate or the hair. Pick one."

Grumbling, Yun-Seong tied the green bandanna around his head. Suddenly, Nightmare's cell phone rang and he opened it to see who called. "Bad news guys, Taki says she's stuck in the money pit stage (Voldo's stage) and she can't dismantle the security system to shut down the force field."

Tira walked up to the force field and grumbled. "Hmph, I wonder… Watchers! Come!" Tira held her arms straight out and her ravens landed on her arms. The birds began flapping their wings and soon, Tira was flying over the gate. Her teammates and the rest of the tourist gaped at the strange sight.

"Go and infiltrate Raphael's castle Tira! I'll pay for your next dinner date with Nightmare!" shouted Xianghua.

"Deal!" and Tira began flying toward the castle.

"OMG! Somebody do something! I mean, she already invaded my castle in the opening of Soul Calibur 3, I don't want to renovate the West side of my castle again," cried Raphael.

"I'm on it. Excuse me for a moment while I call for back up." And Ivy left to make the phone call.

Speaking in a loud voice, Zasalamel called for their attention. "While you people were goofing off, I've hired some back ups. Meet Shura and Dampierre!"

The two strolled forward and waved. "You're going to be paying me for this," Dampierre whispered to Zasalamel.

"Fine. But you'd better make yourself useful."

Dampierre smirked. "Le Bello shall do his best. Don't worry. Now, what can I do for you people?"

"We are going to combine all of our powers and dig a tunnel to go underneath the force field. Since Tira was able to fly over it, we can go under it.," Zasalamel explained confidently.

"That's you big plan?" said Rock with disbelief evident in his tone of voice.

"Shhs hss. (I don't understand)" said Voldo.

Since no one could understand, Yun-Seong repeated the same thing. "I don't understand."

Zasalamel rubbed his head in exasperations. "The force field is attached to the gate, correct?" Everyone nodded really slowly. "So, the only thing in our way is the gate. If we don't use the gate to pass, we should be able to make it. So start digging!" Zasalamel threw a bunch of shovels that he summoned out of nowhere and they began digging.

"Father! They're going to dig their way in! Do something!" Amy began shaking her father really hard and they heard something crack.

Pain shot through Raphael's neck ."AHHH!"

"I think you pulled his muscle or something," said Sophitia. "Someone should pop it back to its normal position."

Kilik strolled over and looked at Raphael's neck. "Hmm, my master always strains his back and things like this are pretty common. You must be getting old man."

"How dare you! I am not old! How can you call this," Raphael gestured to his body, "old. You're just jealous!"

Kilik shrugged. "If you say so, cougholdcough. Anyway, hold still so I can fix your neck."

Holding on to his strained neck, Raphael backed away and said," There's no way I'm letting you anywhere near my neck after what you said. Now who can I trust here…" He wasn't going to ask any of the guys mainly because he had a vibe that they would just make it worse.

He looked at Sophitia. No, she had that weird neck cracking throw so she was probably better at breaking necks than fixing them. He looked at Cassandra. No. She was abit klutzy and if she can break a holy/blessed sword, there's no way he was going to let her near his unblessed neck. He glanced at Setsuka. No. She was better at slicing necks than fixing them too. Ivy? No, she was also better at strangling than any other form of neck healing. Amy? He did teach her abit of medicine but she was the one who strained his neck muscle in the first place so no. The only person left was… Talim. "I choose you, Talim."

Talim pointed at herself and said, "Me? Why me?"

"You're too kind hearted to try anything that would hurt me. Besides, you and Kilik are like the main healers here. Why wouldn't I choose you?"

Talim thought about and she had to admit that he had a point. "Ok, I'll just do my best then." Using the blunt side of her elbow blade, she karate chopped Raphael's neck.

"Owww! What the hell was- Hey, it worked I feel better." Raphael turned this way and that and he laughed at the absence of pain. "Thank you so much ma chere!" And he proceeded to hug the priestess in gratitude and tears of happiness.

Talim gave him a few pats on the back and smiled. "You're welcome. But… could you get off now. You're getting snot on my hat… "

Hilde gasped and pointed at the screen. "Look! They're gone!"

It was true. During the commotion where everyone got distracted with Raphael's neck injury, the other group had managed to tunnel pass the force field and they were strolling around Soul Land looking for revenge. Raphael quickly let go of Talim and began to formulate a plan. "Everyone, we need to split up and capture them. Teams of two or three would be good. After you capture them, bring them back to my castle and I'll throw them in the dungeon." They all scrambled into groups and began readying their weapons. Here's the list of teams.

Team 1- Hilde and Siegfried

Job: Capture Tira, Nightmare Dampierre. Try not to break too many of Raphael's possessions and antiques since they're pretty expensive. Try to keep Tira in jolly mood since that will increase your survival chance by 200%.

Team 2- Cassandra, Sophitia and Kilik

Job: Capture Rock and Lizardman and Xianghua. If Kilik finds himself unable to fight his girlfriend, Cassandra will fight Xianghua and Kilik can fight Rock. Sophitia is allowed five mins of trying to get Lizardman to believe in Hephaestus again. If the lizard will not listen, knock him out and make him become a waiter like the rest of his lizard buddies.

Team 3- Maxi, Setsuka (they'll join up with Ashlotte)

Job: Capture Astaroth and Mitsurugi and take their revenge if Maxi and Setsuka feels like it. Which is probably a yes. Try to protect Ashlotte and make sure that the doll doesn't break. Raphael needs to return her to the Kunpaetku priests since he kinda borrowed her and if she breaks, then he could be sued for a million dollars.

Team 4-Ivy and Yoshimitsu and (they'll join up with Ivy's mysterious back-up)

Job:Capture Voldo, prevent Cervantes from getting free, Shura, and Taki. If Cervantes manages to get free, call Amy immediately and she'll send in reinforcements and if there's enough money left over, she'll hire an excorcist.

Team 5-Talim and Raphael

Job: Capture Yun-Seong, Seong-Mina and Hwang. If possible, Talim should call forth a tornado and blow them back to Korea. Raphael will make fun of Yun-Seong's hair if he feels like it. Which is very likely since he enjoys mocking others.

Commander-Amy

Job: Stay in the secret laboratory/security room and communicate with the teams and direct them. Try to make sure that the other teams don't sneak up on them. If there's nothing interesting, Amy may have some free time to go on Soulbook which is similar to Facebook.

Raphael looked at his comrades and nodded."Ok everyone, move out." And everyone ran out of the room and began searching for the invaders.

Zasalamel and his team were hiding inside the Soul Land gift shop and they were busy organizing themselves into team as well. Here's the list.

Team 1- Tira, Nightmare and Dampierre

Job: Join up with Tira, infiltrate Raphael's castle, and steal Soul Calibur. Get rid of Hilde and Siegfried if they have some free time left.

Team 2- Rock, Lizardman and Xianghua

Job: Remove Kilik, Cassandra and Sophitia from the other team. Use force if necessary. If Kilik tries to run away, then be on your guard and stop him immediately since the man set a new world record for the speed and distance achieved in a day.

Team 3- Astaroth, Mitsurugi and Taki

Job: Mitsurugi needs to find Astaroth, and then the two will rescue Taki who's stuck in the money pit. After that, go crazy and find any enemies they want to kill.

Team 4-Voldo, Cervantes and Shura

Job: Rescue Cervantes who's stuck on his ship. Target Ivy and Yoshimitsu. Can be brought back conscious or unconscious. But they cannot killed because the game producers need Ivy on the front cover of the future cover of Soul Calibur 5. Yoshimitsu has a gang of thieves on his side so they'll go gangsta on you if you kill their leader so that wouldn't be a very desirable scenario.

Team 5: The Korean group.

Job: Create panic and fear so that Raphael's business will go downhill. Go ahead and spread rumors and gossips about Raphael so that his reputation will go downhill as well. Track down the vampire and his daughter. If possible, use Amy as a hostage to trade for Soul Calibur. Try not to hurt Talim because of personal and smart reasons. Personal, she's a friend. Smart reason, Algol will probably kill you since she revived his son.

Commander: Zasalamel

Job: Look into the future and try to predict where their enemies will appear. Will then use advance technology (cellphone) to communicate with the rest of teammates and direct them. His location will be beside the Merry-go-round built on the Wolfkrone Monument Stage. He'll be sitting inside the princess carriage.

"Is everyone clear on the plan?" asked Zasalamel. Everyone nodded. "Ok, let's get moving then."

They all rushed out of the gift shop except for Rock who stopped and bought an action figure of himself. "This will make a nice present for Bangoo." And he went to the cashier to pay.

Xianghua came up to him and asked, "Oh, what did you buy?"

Rock showed her the action figure. "Do you think my son will like it?"

Lizardman joined in the conversation and he nodded. "Hshh awk (I'm sure your son will love it)."

"Aww, thanks Lizardman," said Rock.

"You can understand him?" Xianghua ask.

Rock nodded. "Yeah, I spent a lot of time around animals so I just sorta pick up their language. Ok, let's get going. I'll do you a favor and knock out your boyfriend for you alright?"

Xianghua giggled. "Thanks, but I'm sure I can handle him. The first thing we have to do is find them first, are you guys ready?"

"Shhs (Yes)" answered Lizardman.

After paying for the action figure, the three left the gift shop and began searching for the targets.

* * *

><p>Darkwings13: Thanks for reading. It would be greatly appreciated if I got some more reviews. But so far, I thank Thalie and mdgc for reviewing. Until I type up the next chapter then, bye.<p> 


	6. The Start of Strangeness

As Raphael's team headed out, Amy quickly turned on Soul Land communicator and her voice was heard everywhere in Soul Land, "Loyal customers and fans, as the day or days progress, you will see your favourite soul calibur characters walk around or chase other Calibur characters. Do not be alarmed or get in their way if you wish to live. All you have to do here is have fun, enjoy the rides, buy lots of unhealthy corn dogs, waste money on our games for prizes and come back again. Do not interfere with us and everything will be alright. Do not ask for autographs or pictures, we have some very important matters to attend to. That is all for now, enjoy your time at Soul Land." Turning off the communicator, she leaned back in her chair and observed the computer screens.

* * *

><p>Hours later...<p>

As Ivy and Yoshimitsu climbed the stairs on the fiftieth floor of the Tower of Soul stage, Yoshimitsu stopped to catch his breath and get some oxygen backinto his dying lungs. The man slumped down and sat there on one of the steps as tourists and customers unwillingly walk past them since they really wanted Ivy's pictures and some of the men really wanted to hold her hand and tell her how much they love her. Yoshimitsu looked at the alchemist and said "Can thou explain why we have to climb this infernal tower again?"

"We're meeting the guest I invited to help us. Why else would I climb this place? These heels aren't exactly comfortable you know." Ivy also sat down and massaged her foot.

Using his flag weapon thing to fan himself, he replies "And this friend of yours couldn't choose a better place to meet?"

Ivy nodded. "He said it would be best if we find the highest place to meet him. He didn't explain why since long distance communication is rather wacky and I'm not going to waste money since I'm on pay/text per call." She stood up and put her heels back on. "Now quit whining, we only have ten more floors to go. So hurry up."

"Thou know what, thou can walk. I'm going to take the easy way out." Twirling his flag, Yoshimitsu used it to fly up the steps.

"Hey! That's not fair!" And Ivy chased after the flying warrior. "You know, it's alittle late, we already climbed fifty floors of stairs. You only have ten more floors to go!"

The only reply she got was, "Better late than never!"

* * *

><p>"I told you to ask for directions Siegfried, why didn't you listen? We're totally lost!" Hilde cried angrily. They had been wandering Raphael's castle for quite some time, looking for Tira and all they've done was become completely lost.<p>

Holding the map to Raphael's castle, our knight squinted and tried to pinpoint their location. "Shush, I know what I'm doing Hilde. We should be in the east wing on the second floor according to the map."

Snatching the paper out of her boyfriend's hand, Hilde looked at it and groaned. "No! We're near the library, that's where we are. The only thing that you said that was correct was that we're on the second floor. We're south east, not east!"

Siegfried crossed his arms and looked at her with an annoyed expression. "I'm sorry if I've never lived in a castle princess. Unlike you, I'm not pampered enough to afford so many floors and hallways in my home. Since you've been raised in one, shouldn't you be the one leading then? I'm sure that you owned quite a few palaces so you must know where everything would be located."

Hilde stared at Siegfried. "What did you say? Did you just call me spoiled!"

"Yeah! What if I did! It always has to be your way doesn't it? You never care about my feelings!"

"Excuse me! I'm merely doing what's best for us! Do you know how hard it is to be with you sometimes? Running Wolfkrone was easier than planning our last date!"

"Oh yeah! Then let's split up the search and see who can find Tira first then! I'd rather search by myself than be stuck with a spoiled princess!" Siegfried shouted.

"You're on! Here, let me give you a head start!" Whipping her lance back, she hit Siegfried hard in the chest and the guy flew through two layers of solid wood paneling and down a set of stairs.

Her cellphone rang and Hilde flipped it open to see who called. Amy's voice came through and she sounded rather annoyed. "You're going to be paying for the damage. I'll send the bills to you finance minister later. For now, please refrain from destroying my father's castle. By the way, Tira's on the third floor, you should head up there and stop her. That's everything, Amy out."

Amy turned back to the many computer screens and looked around for something significant. She noticed that Nightmare was trying to infiltrate the castle by using the fireplace. Idiot. Dialling Siegfried number, she waited impatiently for him to pick up. He finally picked up on the third ring. "Hello?"

"Siegfried, Nightmare is pulling the old santa trick of climbing down the fireplace. Turn to your right and walk straight, and then you should turn left and open the third door to you right. That's my old toys room. After that, you're free to use any methods you want to get rid of Nightmare," Amy instructed.

"Ok, I got it. I will not fail even if I must sacrifice my life," Siegfried replied determinedly.

Amy's eyebrow rose up and she said, "Just because you're using one of your lines from the game doesn't mean it makes you cool, Amy out."

Turning back to the computer screen, she couldn't find the location of any of their enemies which meant they were being clever and trying to keep out of sight. Or wearing some really cleaver disguises. Whatever, she would go grab something from the kitchen and come back later. Nothing bad could possibly happen if she left for just a little bit. Right? Standing up, she decided that their may still be some chocolate pudding pie left from last night's dinner. Too bad she didn't notice Rock, Lizardman and Xianghua showing up at the Distant Marsh as she left the room.

* * *

><p>At the distant marsh stage, there were plenty of people swimming around in the water and some of the kids were playing with the hippos. A few of the customers were feeding the dodo birds. Hiding behind the tall trees, Xianghua gave the signal to commence their plan. Rock quickly climbed one of the tree and began looking around to look for their targets. Lizardman ran forth and snatched two of the dodo birds while the dodo keeper wasn't looking and scrambled back beside Xianghua's side. Setting them back down, Xianghua held her sword up to their necks and turned toward Lizardman to begin.<p>

Lizardman looked at them with the scariest expression he could muster. "Shsgk, hashhh (You're being held for interrogation. Do not try to escape or else my lovely friend here will be cooking up some dodo stew)."

The birds that looked each other and quickly nodded; they were so scared that they were starting to molt.

Lizardman gave Xianghua the thumbs up and he continued his scary interrogation. "Hssh kews quash (I want you to tell me everything you know. You leave out any pieces of important information and we'll be having dinner together. With you as the main course. Now, start speaking)."

The birds squawk and began speaking in their bird language and for some strange reason, Lizardman understands it even though he's a reptile. Meanwhile, Rock was communicating with the birds that were flying past him, trying to ask for the location of their enemies. One of them said they noticed a woman with short white hair wearing a really revealing outfit and a guy with a wooden arm who was using his weapons to fly, were standing on top of the tower of souls waiting for someone. Rock gave the bird a few pat on the head and it flew away. He shouted down to Xianghua and said, "Xianghua, call Voldo and Shura. Tell them that Ivy and Yoshimitsu are on top of the tower of souls. Now's their chance to free Cervantes!"

"OK, I'm on it!" Dialling Shura's number, Xianghua waited for the woman to pick up.

"What is it?" answered Shura.

"Shura, this is Xianghua. We've received reports from reliable resources that Ivy and Yoshimitsu are on top of the Tower of Souls. Now's your chance to rescue Cervantes."

"Good, but I'll pass the job on to Voldo. I'd rather go after Ivy and Yoshimitsu. It's time for me to have some fun. Bye." And Shura snapped her phone shut. Turning to Voldo, she repeated what Xianghua said. "So you go rescue that weird pirate and I shall be going after Ivy and her partner. Catch up to me later." And Shura ran off toward the Tower of Soul stage.

Voldo merely raise his arms in a hopeless gesture and headed toward Cervantes direction. "Shhhsh (I hope that girl knows what she's doing)" and he headed toward the ghostly pirate direction.

* * *

><p>Our Korean group stepped out of a clothing shop that was selling stuff like 'I love Soul Calibur T-shirts', or shirts with pictures of individual calibur characters and other articles of clothing that the cast of Soul Calibur wears. For example, someone stepped out wearing Setsuka kimono from Soul Calibur 3. But that's not important, what's important was that Seong-Mina, Yun-Seong and Hwang stepped out in their new disguise and smiled up at the sun. For unknown reasons, they decided to disguise themselves as business woman and men. Hwang had even bought a fake mustache. The shop was selling tailored designer suits and some other exspensive outfits (unknown reason why the shop was selling non-related Calibur outfits but oh well).<p>

Anyway, all Zasalamel knows is that he'll be receiving a very fat bill. Sitting inside his carriage, he had the vision of seeing his future self going into hysterics over the insane bill and he quickly punched in Yun-Seong's number. When the Korean guy picked up, Zasalamel wasted no time on pleasnt introductions. "YOU MORONS! YOU GUYS SPENT HALF THE DAY SHOPPING FOR CLOTHES INSTEAD OF DOING ANYTHING PRODUCTIVE! AND YOU SPENT FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS ON CLOTHES! I HAVE HALF A MIND TO THROW YOU GUYS INTO A BLACKHOLE!"

Yun-Seong held the phone away from his ears and grimaced. Seong-Mina and Hwang could hear every word that Zasalamel was saying and they grimaced as well. When it sounded like Zasalamel had to stop and breath for a moment, Yun-Seong quickly cut in and tried to explain. "Dude, relax. We have a perfectly good reason for this. After you see what we can do, you'll agree that the clothes were worth every hundred dollar bills."

"IT HAD BETTER BE A GOOD PLAN! IF IT FAILS, I'M TAKING YOU GUYS DON BEFORE I TAKE RAPHAEL DOWN! WHAT TIME IS IT!"

Yun-Seong looked confused and he said, "Huh?"

" I SAID WHAT TIME IS IT?" shouted Zasalamel.

The korean guy quickly looked at his new two thousand dollar armani watch and said, "It's about 5:20 pm."

Zasalamel rubbed his temples and sighed. "It's a little late for you guys to spread rumors and gossip or capture Raphael and his daughter. I want you three to find a place somewhere in Soul Land to be our headquaters. If you can't find one, then make one."

"We're going to build a headquaters while wearing designer suits?" asked Yun-Seong with evident disbelief.

"YOU GUYS CAN BE SUCKED INTO A BLACK HOLE WEARING YOUR SUITS INSTEAD! NOW GET MOVING BEFORE I LOSE IT!" Zasalamel shut his cellphone and leaned back against the hard wall of the carriage.

The man had been sitting inside the princess carriage on the merry-go-round for about half the day and he was starting to get really cranky. It didn't help that a little girl suddenly wanted to ride his princess carriage instead of the other three unoccupied ones. The ride attendant was knocking on the door to the carriage and Zasalamel stepped out angrily. "What?"

"Sir, you've been sitting on this ride for about eight hours. I shall ignore the fact that it's alittle creepy and kindly ask you to leave so that this young girl here and other kids can ride," said the ride attendant.

Zasalamel narrowed his eyes at the man. "Your point?"

"Sir, if you don't leave, I'll have to call security."

He was about to say something to the attendant but then the kid grabbed his robe and started tugging. "Hey! Let go of me!"

A small blonde girl giggled and said, "I know you. You're Zasalamel! I love using you in the game to fight my friends who keeps using Raphael. Your scythe thingy is so cool! Raphael's wimpy toadsticker is no match for your scythe. I'm your biggest fan. Can you tell me more about you? Can I hold your scythe? Please, pretty please? With a big red cheery on top?"

Everyone around stared at the two worriedly. Was Zasalamel going to suck the kid into a black hole or something? "That kid is doomed" someone whispered.

Zasalamel held his scythe and moved it toward the kid. Someone gasped. Someone looked away in fear. Someone even fainted. But all he did was showed the kid his scythe. "Here, you may have this."

The kid squealed in delight and grabbed it. Well, to be accurate it was alittle to heavy for the poor girl so she merely fell with it. Nontheless, she was one happy kid. "Thanks! You're the best! I really, really, really, really, really, really" Zasalamel coughed. "Love it mister!"

Zasalamel nodded and gave the kid a few pats on the head. "Be good and continue winning your Raphael using friends. I shall be leaving now." And he walked away with a small smile. "Ha, she called Raphael's rapier a wimpy toadsticker. What a good kid," he thought.

* * *

><p>"ACHOO!" sneezed Raphael. "Someone must be talking about me. Achoo!"<p>

Talim quickly said, "Bless you." Normally, nothing out of the ordinary would happen, but since Talim was a wind priestess, sparkly magical wind surrounded Raphael and it made him sparkle.

"OMG! It's Edward from Twilight!" a bunch of girls started to squeal happily and they ran toward him.

Raphael quickly whipped out his Flambert threateningly. "I'm not Edward you idiots! For one thing, vampires sparkling in the sun was the worst idea anyone had ever come up with. Second, I'm way better looking. Third, I'm not sparkling. Talim, will you please stop this sparkling wind of yours?"

Talim gave a sheepish grin and called it off. The girls ran off to cry since it wasn't Edward.

Raphael shook his head in disgust and was about to discuss something with his partner but Talim had already wandered off to the arcade dome in Soul Land. "Hey! Wait for me Talim!" The vampire rushed over to Talim who was waiting in line to get into the dome. "Why are we going into the arcade dome?"

"I don't know, but the wind is telling me we'll find something important in there," answered Talim. She looked at the long line and sighed. "Hmmm, this is going to take awhile Raphael, what should we do?"

"Hah, normal people will have to wait. But I own this place, we don't need to wait in line," Raphael said haughtily.

Fiddling with her hat, Talim replied, "But I feel bad if we skip in front of all these people."

"Close your eyes then," said Raphael.

She closed her eyes and Raphael quickly grabbed her hand and dragged her inside (past the very angry people who were waiting in line). "Now you can open your eyes."

Talim opened her eyes and said, "Why did I have to close my eyes?"

"Because if you can't see that we're skipping the line, then you won't feel guilty," Raphael explained proudly.

Talim raised her eyebrow. "But what you just said just made me feel guilty since I now know that I skipped the line."

"Umm, I- uh, maybe?" Raphael tried to look around for some idea on what to say next when a shrill voice rang through the air.

"OMG, it's Talim and Raphael from Soul Calibur! OMG! They're holding hands!" cried two lanky teenagers.

Talim and Raphael looked at their joined hands and quickly pulled away. One of the teen came up to Raphael and whispered, "Is it true you're a pedophile?"

Raphael face turned a funny red that looked like it was either badly sunburned, or he had just spent two hours submerged in a really hot hot-tub."What! How dare you! Do you want to die! I'm going to-"

"Raphael look! It's Zasalamel's scythe!" cried Talim. She pointed to a little blonde kid holding a bunch of game tokens in her hand and the kid's mother was dragging Zasalamel's scythe around with her.

"I'll deal with you later punk." And Raphael and Talim quickly ran toward the kid's mother.

Talim smiled politely and said, "Madam, could you please tell us where you found that scythe?"

The little kid quickly piped up and answered, "Zasalamel gave it to me at the merry-go-round at the Wolfkrone Monument stage! He was so cool!" The kid then peered at Talim alittle closer and exclaimed, "Oh! You're Talim aren't you?" The kid noticed Raphael standing beside Talim as well and she added, "Wow, Raphael is here too? Look at that mommy, we're meeting so many famous people! Of course Talim's bottom tier and Raphael's a girly vampire that uses cheapy moves to win but this is so neat! I'm having such a fun day!"

Talim's and Raphael's mouth dropped open in an O of surprise. "I am... bottom tier?" whispered a shock Talim.

"I'm a girly vampire?..." whispered an equally stunned Raphael.

"Yep," the kid nodded cheerfully.

"HOW DARE YOU!" and Raphael lunged for the kid.

Talim quickly grabbed his cape and held him back. "No Raphael, you can't hurt a kid. I won't allow it."

"I'm going to be disciplining her, that's what I'm going to be doing!" Raphael shouted angrily.

The mother quickly grabbed her kid and held the child in fright. "Hey what's going on here sugarplum?" said the kid's father who just arrived.

"Honey, this man here said he was going to discipline our child!" cried the mother.

The man narrowed his eyes at Raphael who was doing the same thing to the man. "Who do you think you are to consider disciplining my child?"

"I'm Raphael Sorel; the owner of this place. Your kid just insulted me before this big crowd of gamers that's crowding around us." Raphael motioned to the crowd they had attracted. Some of them were starting to shout 'fight, fight, fight'. Raphael turned back to the girl's father and said, "I will not let this go that easily."

The man smirked. "Talk is cheap, why don't you prove yourself." The man walked up to a Soul Calibur 4 game machine and inserted some tokens. "You can versus my daughter in some matches. Best two out of three wins. Are you in?"

Raphael smirked as well. "Alright, you asked for it. But when your daughter cries from losing, don't blame me."

"I'm not going to lose to a girly vampire!" the kid piped up. "Let's do this mister girly vampire!" And she walked up to the controllers and began selecting her character.

"Stop calling me a girly vampire! You're so going to eat those words!" Walking up to the other controller, Raphael chose himself of course.

The kid had chosen Zasalamel and the two glared at each other. And the match began.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Amy had returned to the security room with some snacks and when glanced over at the computer screens her eyes nearly pop out of her head. "Why am I stuck with such idiots?" She dropped her snacks down on the ground and left again. This time, it was to fetch her dolls that wouldn't fail her like the rest of group.<p>

* * *

><p>"Where the heck am I!" shouted Mitsurugi angrily. He had been wandering around underground for the past few hours searching for Taki and Astaroth. Taki was stuck somewhere in the money pit stage and Astaroth was probably still running away from Ashlotte. He came to a fork in the road and held the flashlight in his hand alittle tighter. Which way should he go? Just then, a few people rushed past him. He quickly grabbed a young teen boy and asked gruffly, "Where are you people going?"<p>

"There's a tour going on at the Molten Lava stage," explained the kid.

"A tour? Will it cover all the underground stages?" asked the samurai hopefully.

The kid nodded. "Yeah. We'll start from the Molten Lava stage and work our way around until we head back to our initial position. Now will you please let me go? It starts in ten minutes." The kid shook Mitsurugi off and continued running down the cave lit with torches.

"Why am I carrying a flashlight?" He chucked the flashlight and began running after the kid.

The flashlight rolled far far away until it got stepped on by Elvis- I mean Maxi. The guy slipped and fell backwards, "Ahh, my hair!"

Setsuka nimbly stepped out of the way and walked toward the flashlight. Picking it up, she examined it carefully and made an angry noise. "This belongs to that loathsome Mitsurugi! Hurry Maxi! We must catch up!"

Maxi got off the ground and began dusting himself. "How do you know that it's from Mitsurugi?"

"How long do you think I've spent trying to track him down. I know everything there is to know about him. His feet size, his scent, his bedtime, blah blah blah." And Setsuka went on and on.

Maxi got creeped out and decided that Setsuka was officially the greatest and scariest stalker on the planet. But maybe she can help him track down Astaroth in the future. He snapped out of it and said, "Umm, not to interrupt but shouldn't we chase after him?"

Ssetsuka stopped talking and nodded. "I will have revenge for my master!" And she charged through at lightning speed.

Maxi quickly ran after her. "Hey wait for me! I'm going to have my revenge on Astaroth too you know! Did you pick up any scent of that golem on that flashlight? Hey!" And the two disappeared down the cave.

* * *

><p>Darkwings13: Whew, this is one long chapter. But it turned out pretty good I think. Things are about to get really interesting people. Anyway, I thanks those of you who favorited and review this story. It makes me feel sparkly inside. So, will Hilde and Siegfried make up? Who's Ivy mysterious guest? Will Voldo be able to rescue Cervantes? Can Raphael beat that little girl in a soul calibur game? Where will Team Draw's headquaters be? Many of these questions may be answered in the next chapter. Until then, farewell.<p> 


	7. Cry and Fly

"If you let go, I'm going to haunt you for the rest of your life Kilik!" screamed Cassandra as she, Sophitia and Kilik held on to each other tightly as they swayed back and forth in the air over the edge of a deep and dark cliff. They had decided to search Ling Sheng-Su Temple Ruin stage when suddenly; one of those weird spirit special effect things pooped out and scared Cassandra. The Greek warrior stumbled backward and fell off the cliff. Sophitia quickly grabbed her sister but the weight was too much and she fell over the cliff as well.

Kilik quickly swung his Kali-Yuga and wedged it between a crack in the cliff, swung himself over and shouted to the sisters to grab his legs. End result; he had Cassandra holding on to his left leg and Sophitia holding on to his right leg while he was holding on to his staff for dear life. If his Kali-Yuga slipped from the crack, they were doomed. Kilik looked down at the Greek girl and said, "Cassandra, I'm pretty sure that if I let go, I'm not going to live to see you haunt me."

Sophitia shook her head and sighed. "Will you guys stop fighting; we need to think of a plan to get back up there."

"I've got a great plan sister, why don't we just yell for help?" and Cassandra quickly began shouting at the top of her lungs. "HELP! HELP! THERE'S TWO BEAUTIFUL YOUNG LADIES HANGING OVER THE EDGE OF A CLIFF! HELP!"

"AND A REALLY HOT GUY AS WELL!" Sophitia added.

"Guys, I don't think there's anyone around. It did say that this place was under construction," Kilik pointed out. That only made Sophitia and Cassandra shout louder. The only creature that heard them was a confused pigeon.

* * *

><p>Ivy tapped her foot impatiently and looked around for her guest. Where the heck was he? Yoshimitsu was sitting beside her and meditating. Suddenly, the sky flashed and there was an explosion of blinding light. A brown hair guy wearing a red outfit was sitting in some kind of flying motorcycle and he dropped down beside Ivy and said, "Professor Ivy, long time no see. How are you doing?"<p>

Ivy smirked and said, "Fine enough Lloyd. So this is how you managed to travel to our world as a guest character in Soul Calibur Legends." She cast a critical eye over the machine and admired it's design and abilities. She turned back to Yoshimitsu and made the introductions. "This is Lloyd Irving, a good friend of mine. Lloyd, this is Yoshimitsu."

"Hi, nice to meet you." Lloyd held his hand for Yoshimitsu and the warriors quickly shook hands.

Their new guest turned to Ivy and said, "So, what do you need me here for?"

Ivy and Yoshimitsu quickly explained the situation and Lloyd occasionally interrupted a few times to ask for details. But in the end, the red swordsman agreed to join their cause. As Ivy and Lloyd reminisce about the good old times, Yoshimitsu gasped. "Is that Cassandra, Sophitia and Kilik hanging over a cliff?"

Ivy and Lloyd rushed over and squinted in the direction that Yoshimitsu was pointing. "You're right! We've got to help them! Lloyd, fire up you ride and let's head over there," Ivy commanded.

"You got it Ivy!" Lloyd quickly started the machine up and Ivy hopped in behind Lloyd. Yoshimitsu took out his weapons and used them to fly instead.

The three airborne warriors were about to fly over to the Ling Sheng-Su Tmple ruin stage when all of a sudden, Shura popped out and grabbed onto Yoshimitsu's legs. "Haha, it looks like I arrived just in time. Let's have some fun guys."

"If thou will not let go of me, I shall take thy life!" and Yoshimitsu struggled to get rid of his heavy weight that was holding on tightly to his legs.

Using her whip, Ivy tried to lash and cut Shura off her companion but the crazy woman merely whip out her sword and entwined it tightly with Ivy's whip. "You're not getting rid of me that easy!"

"Yoshimitsu! Keep up with me if you can. Ivy, hold on tight!" Lloyd slammed his foot down on the accelerator and they roared through the air. It was a strange sight indeed, as many of the tourist and customers looked up and saw a guy driving like crazy on a flying motorcycle thing, two women wearing really revealing clothing (and both had a really noticeable assets) were playing a fierce game of tug-of-war with their weapons and some weird guy was spinning his weapons around and flying beside the motorbike with the asian chick holding on to his legs. Needless to say, they were very noticeable indeed.

* * *

><p>"Hey! Is that Ivy, Yoshimitsu, Shura and some unknown guy I've never seen before flying through the air?" shouted Rock who was still hanging on top of the tree.<p>

Xianghua and Lizardman looked up as well and their eyes widened in shock. The two dodo birds seized their chance to escape and the only thing they left behind was a few feathers. Lizardman and Xianghua quickly scrambled up the tree to get a better view of the strange sight. "Shura! What's going on?" shouted Xianghua.

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm trying to-" Shura turned back to the fight and quickly dodged one of Ivy's kick. "You guys just leave me alone; I'm finally having some fun."

Yoshimitsu glanced down at the three hanging on the tree and said, "Xianghua! If thou love Kilik, thou'll head over to the Ling Sheng-Su Temple Ruin Stage. He's sort of hanging on to a cliff."

"What did you say? My Kilik is hanging on to the edge of a cliff?"

"Yeah! I can't really go into details since I sort of have my hands full. So if thou doesn't want to see thy true love as a flattened pancake, thou should hurry!" And they flew away.

Xianghua quickly jumped down the tree and ran off to save her boyfriend. "I'm coming Kilik!"

"Wait for us Xianghua!" And Lizardman and Rock jumped down and ran after her as well.

"Hawsssh awk? (Do you think this is a good idea rescuing our enemies)?" asked Lizardman.

Rock merely shrugged and continued running. "Maybe they'll join our side if we rescue them. It couldn't hurt to try right?"

Lizardman grunted in reply and the two dashed after Xianghua.

* * *

><p>Rapidly firing away on the controlled, Raphael managed to make himself (in the game) unleashed a barrage of good combos. The little girl beside him merely stuck her tongue out at him and retaliated by making her Zasalmel sidestep his last attack and grab him. As he saw himself being thrown across the stage like a rag doll, he felt an urgent need to strangle someone at this very moment. "Hah! I won mister girly vampire! Nyah nyah! Zasalamel is the best! You lost, I won, you lost, I won," and the girl began running around in circles cheering for herself in a very irritating tone of voice.<p>

Raphael was about to give the kid a good spanking when Talim stepped in and said, "You're wrong. Raphael is not a girly vampire. I shall prove it by challenging you."

The little girl stopped running around and she gave Talim an amusing glance. "You're going to use mister girly vampire against me?"

Talim nodded. "The wind does not like little bragging girls. You shouldn't make fun of others. If I win, you must stop calling Raphael a girly vampire."

The little girl crossed her arm and said, "If I win, you'll buy my two hundred game tokens. Deal?"

Talim's heart skipped a beat and her eyes widened. Two hundred game tokens? That would cost her a year's worth of allowance. And the parents of her village only paid her five bucks to baby-sit their babies. Talim did some quick math in her head and groaned. She would have to baby-sit ten kids a day for five months to be able to buy those games token. Why did Raphael sell them at such an outrageous prices! Maybe she should back out of this before it gets out of hand...

"I'll pay them for you if you lose Talim," Raphael whispered. "But you should still try to win; I want my reputation restored ok?"

Whew, it felt like a heavy burden had been lifted off her chest. Talim quickly nodded and said, "Deal!"

"Alrighty then, let's play!" The little girl inserted some more tokens and she selected Zasalamel again.

Talim walked up to the controller and selected Raphael. She gave Raphael the thumbs up and he mouthed "Don't lose! I can't bear to see myself getting kicked around by Zasalamel again."

And the battle commenced. Ten heart rendering, heart pounding, nail biting, hair pulling, tension mounting minutes went by and the winner was... Talim!

"You won Talim! I'm so proud of you!" Raphael gave Talim a high five and he turned around to mock the little girl. "Hah! Who's the loser now? That's right, you are!"

The little girl's eyes began to water and Talim quickly shoved Raphael out of the way. "I'm sorry, are you alright?" She turned around to glare at Raphael.

"Wah! You're a meanie Talim! I hate you! You made mister girly vampire beat my awesome Zasalamel. He was my hero. You ruined everything!" and the crying girl ran out of the arcade dome along with her parents running closely behind while carrying Zasalamel's scythe.

"Hah, what a sore loser. " Raphael turned to look at his companion who was standing there with a stunned expression on her face. "Talim? Are you alright?"

Talim made a few attempts to say something but the only thing that came out was a small squeak. Her eyes began to well up with tears and she wailed, "I'm a terrible person! I made a little girl cry... I'm... I'm so horrible! I don't deserve to live! Wind, forgive me!" And Talim ran out of the dome crying her eyes out.

"Hey, wait Talim! It's ok, she was just a crybaby! No, you're not a crybaby! I was just saying- Ahh! Come back Talim!" Raphael chased after his crying companion and the two left a crowd of amused gamers behind.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Nightmare was wiggling himself down the fireplace when all of a sudden, he smelled something really good. It smelled like chicken stew or something similar and it was making him really hungry. He wiggled down faster and thought to himself, "Maybe I'll raid Raphael's kitchen before I go looking for Tira and Soul Calibur."<p>

On the other hand, Siegfried was fanning the fire beneath the fireplace where a large pot of soup was cooking. The knight occasionally added some seasoning and stirred the pot with a big wooden spoon. He looked at his watch and estimated that Nightmare should be dropping in very soon. Two minutes later, his arch enemy dropped into the pot and yelped. "What kind of sick joke is this!" And Nightmare struggled to get out of the boiling waters.

Siegfried merely dumped a bucketful of onion and pepper powder on his arch nemesis. "This sure smells good."

"By the time I'm done with you, you won't have a nose left to smell with. I shall burn you in darkness for this!" screamed Nightmare as eyes began watering from the onions.

Siegfried grabbed a chocolate cookie and shoved it into Nightmare's mouth to try and shut him up. Nightmare only screamed even louder and as he spit out the cookie, he shouted, "You imbecile! I hate chocolate! I'm going to rip your hair out for that! And then I'll burn it. And then I'll burn you!"

The knight smiled and said, "At least you're burning first. But wait till you see what's coming up next." Lifting his giant sword, Requiem, he smashed the giant pot and Nightmare flowed out along with the really hot soup. He then gave a shrill whistle and a bunch of guard dogs quickly arrived and bared their teeth at Nightmare. "Here boys, it's dinner time."

"You shall regret this!" screamed Nightmare as he ran away. "I'll give you the worst nightmare of darkness for this!"

"One crazy down, one more to go." And Siegfried left to find Tira.

* * *

><p>"Eat this you crazy girl!" shouted Hilde as she shoved a pillow in Tira's face.<p>

"You wanna die that badly!" Tira kicked Hilde in the stomach and she grabbed a pillow as well. The two then began to fight using their pillows and this turned into a wacky pillow fight. "Take that! And that!" And Tira double slapped Hilde with the pillow.

Letting out a battle cry, Hilde swung her pillow with all her might over Tira's head and it exploded into a shower of white feathers. This had two results, Tira turned back into her jolly side and the feathers flew into the now jolly (but still crazy) girl's eyes and Tira stumbled backward into the open window and fell out. Hilde rushed over to the window and saw that Tira's watchers had rescued her and were now carrying their mistress away to safety. "Just wait princess! When me and Nighty come back for you, you're so going to regret this!"

Hilde rolled her eyes and she slammed the window shut. Taking out her cellphone, she called Amy but no one picked up so she left a text message saying that she got rid of Tira. Hilde then left to go to her room to take a short nap.

* * *

><p>Hiding on the floor above Dampierre, Amy leaned over and saw the con man sneaking around the grand staircase. She was going to make sure he paid for intruding her home. As he walked directly below her, she dropped a stink bomb on him.<p>

"Ahh! What is this!" cried Dampierre as he tried to get away from the noxious fumes. "This is worse than that new cologne Raphael has been endorsing!"

Amy frowned."It's called Midnight Sparkle moron. You should know the name of the product you're insulting. And by the way, I can assure you that it smells way better than you right now."The truth was, the cologne probably smelled only a tiny bit better. Amy shuddered at the memory of her father spraying it on for the first time. She thought she going to need a nose surgery to restore her sense of smelling; but there was no way she was going to agree with Dampierre. Amy quickly grabbed a remote control to summon her dolls. Three of them instantly appeared and Amy began imputing the control buttons. The dolls began whacking Dampierre with a baseball bat, a tennis racket, and a metal pan. "Get away from Le Bello! You're very bad girls!" Blindly running away from them, Dampierre slammed into one of her father's marble pillars and knocked himself out.

Amy controlled her dolls to carry Dampierre into the dungeon and when she was satisfied that the unconscious man would not be able to escape his cell, she returned back to the security room and analyzed what's going on. She sighed and picked up her cellphone and sent her father a quick text message. Turning back to the screen, she observed the events happening while drinking a cup of warm tea.

* * *

><p>Voldo was climbing the ride where Cervantes was stuck on and he had almost reached the top when a sudden scream nearly made him fall off. "What are you doing here!" cried Cervantes. "Are you trying to be Spiderman or something? You nearly gave me a heart attack when I looked over the side of ship to see something strange crawling up here."<p>

"Hsshs... (You should be grateful I'm trying to rescue you...)" said Voldo. Using hand signs and such, Voldo tried to translate to Cervantes that he was here to rescue him. Voldo then made the gesture that Cervantes should get into his arms and let him carry him down the ship.

Cervantes gave Voldo a look of utter shock. "Who do you think I am? I am no damsel in distress. My reputation will be ruined if you carry me in your arms like some helpless wimp. I refuse. I'd rather be stuck on board my ship for eternity."

It was if God was listening or something because all of a sudden, Lloyd, Ivy, Yoshimitsu and Shura flew by. Cervantes seized his chance at freedom and quickly grabbed onto Shura's foot. Voldo leapt forward and grabbed on to Cervantes foot. The weight was now too much to bear for Yoshimitsu's spinning weapons and he began to fall. "It looks like this is the end…"

"You're not dying on my watch Yoshimitsu. And there's no way I'm going to let gravity kill Cervantes, I'm going to kill him myself!" Ivy quickly used her Valentine to hold on to Yoshitmitsu and Lloyd's flying machine continued flying around with a chain of swinging passengers.

* * *

><p>"Kilik! I'm here for you!" cried Xianghua as she leaned over the edge of the cliff and reached out for boyfriend's hand.<p>

Kilik eyes widened and he said, "Xianghua, why are you here?"

"That's not important, what's important is that I get you to safety." She stretched alittle farther but she couldn't reach his hands or his staff. She turned to Rock and Lizardman and cried, "Guys! Hurry up and help!"

"Here, I've got a plan," said Rock. He grabbed Lizardman by the tail and began lowering him down toward Kilik. The lizard grabbed the staff and Rock began pulling them back to safety. But then, Lloyd and his dangling passengers flew by and Rock accidently got snatched up in the chain somehow. So now, there were a few more additional passengers to the now really ridiculous sight in the sky.

"You've got to be kidding me," groaned Cassandra. Her sister beside her gave a loud sigh of exasperation as well.

"Hephaestus; please give me the strength to live through these stupid and very troubled times," Sophotia prayed as she swung back and forth while holding on to Kilik's legs. Looking down, she saw a bunch of people on the ground pointing and looking at them."Hey, if I catch anyone trying to look up my skirt, I'm going to call on Zeus to strike you with a lightning bolt."

As they flew away, Kilik turned to Xianghua and cried, "Xianghua! I lov-"but Kilik got smacked in the face by Cervantes hat and he couldn't finish that sentence.

The only thing Xianghua heard as her love and the rest of the people flew away was Cervantes shouting something about his hat and how it was all Ivy's fault. Taking out her cellphone, she quickly dialled Zasalamel's number. "Zasalamel! It's terrible! Kilik's is flying away from me!"

He merely gave her a "what are you babbling about?" before Xianghua broke down and explained everything to him. He listened and sighed. Why did these things always happen to him… "Keep calm woman, I shall take care of this myself. What you need to do is go and find Yun-Seong and see if they've found a good place to be our headquarters. I deal with everything else. Now, go."

As Xianghua hanged up, Zasalamel punched in a different number and waited for a reply. Someone finally picked up and said, "Welcome to Olcadan's Owl Service. We sell every and any kind of weapon available in the world and we'll deliver them to you faster than the speed of normal owls. How may I help you?"

"I would like to order a brand new scythe; it'd be great if you can deliver it to my location within a few minutes."

"Ok, I'll use more owl technology trackers to pinpoint your location…" An owl flew by and then Olcadan said, "Ahh, there you are. Ok, you shall be receiving your weapon in a few minutes. Just send me the bills by next month or else I'll send my owlsafter you. It's been a pleasure doing business with you, come back again." And Olcadan hung up.

Suddenly a bunch of owls appeared and they were all holding on to Zasalamel's new scythe. They dropped it into his hand and flew away. Holding the weapon in his hand, Zasalamel closed his eyes and looked into the future for the location of the flying idiots.

* * *

><p>Hanging upside down from a high ceiling and coiled in chains, Taki let out a bloodcurdling scream of rage. Ever since Raphael created this new world, everything has been going downhill for the sexy ninja. First of all, the code of a ninja is to live in secrecy. In this new world, Taki = secret no longer applies. How can she be a ninja if her picture was on every female magazine in the world? How can she be a ninja if the paparazzi are continually chasing her down? And now, it looks like her ninja skills had abandoned her since she had fallen into such a lame trap. Tourists were walking around, taking pictures; little kids were playing around in the money pit and laughing. Everyone stopped at the sound of Taki's scream. Finally, one of the kids shrugged and said, "It must be a special effect or something."<p>

Everyone agreed with the kid and they moved on. Taki rolled her eyes as the kids continued rolling around in the gold coins below her. Great, instead of a ball pit, they were playing in a money pit. This was just great….

* * *

><p>Settling himself down beside an old couple, Mitsurugi took out the tour map and analyzed it closely. The lava resistant boat they were in bobbed up and down in the river of lava and after a few minutes, the tour guide announced that it was time to proceed forward and start the tour. As they started to leave, Setsuka and Maxi arrived at the entrance a few distance away. Setsuka let out a cry of rage and dashed forward to try and leap onto the boat. "Get back here Mtisurugi!"<p>

The samurai eyes widened and he dropped the map. That was one persistent woman. Under normal circumstances, he would've welcomed the fight. But right now, he has more important things to deal with. He ran to the driver's seat and shoved the driver out. Looking down at the complex buttons and controls, Mitsurugi turned to the driver on the floor and said, "Which button will make this boar get out of here faster!"

The driver pointed to one and Mitsurugi quickly pushed it. The boat shot forward and left the dock and a very angry Setsuka behind. Her rage was hotter than the lava around her. Mitsurugi stepped onto the deck and laughed at her. "You'll never catch me now woman!"

In response, she took off her shoes and threw one at him. Mitsurugi laughed and dodged it. "Hah! Is that all you've got?"

She took off the other one and she hurled it with all her strength; it flew toward the samurai at the speed of light. The shoe clunked him on the side of the head and it knocked him out. "When I get my hands on you, you're so going to pay Mitsurugi!"

And the unconscious samurai drifted away with the tour boat. Maxi came up beside her and gave Setsuka a few comforting pats on the back. "At least he'll have a roaring headache when he wakes up."

Setsuka nodded stiffly. "Let's return to Raphael's castle then. I need to get some rest before we chase after those guys again."

Running a hand through his hair, Maxi winced. "Yeah, my hair is going to need a lot of conditioner after this. I mean this heat is seriously frying them." A few strands fell out and he looked at them closely. "Look! I'm even getting split ends! This is much more serious than I thought."

Setsuka rolled her eyes at her partner. "You're complaining about a little split ends? My feet are starting to cook." The two looked at Setsuka's shoeless feet that were starting to turn red and they cringed.

Maxi sighed and kneeled down. "Here, I'll carry you."

"Huh?"

"I said I'll carry you. There's no way you'll be able to walk back without any protective footwear," said Maxi. "But make sure you don't mess up my hair ok?"

Setsuka's lips curved up into a small smile. It looks like Maxi wasn't such a selfish and vain guy after all. "Very well, I shall accept your gracious offer then." She climbed onto his back and he carried her piggy back style out of the molten lava caves.

* * *

><p>"This is the place guys. There's nowhere else that can possibly be good enough for our headquarters," laughed Yun-Seong as he looked around at the magnificent views of windmills and tall mountains while a pleasant breeze blew past him. Yep, he had chosen Talim's village of the wind stage from Soul Calibur 2 to be the new headquarter for team DRAW.<p>

Seong-Mina gave him a quizzical look and said, "Even though you guys are friends, I don't think she'll be very happy if you turned this stage into our headquarters. I know it's not really her village, but it's kinda symbolic for her."

"Yeah, but this place is way better than Zasalamel's clock tower stage that we tried awhile ago. I mean, did you see the size of those rats? The only person who'll be happy with that place would be Tira's ravens," Yun-Seong said with an expression of disgust clear on his face. "How he stayed there all that time to ambush us in Soul Calibur 3, I'll never know."

"And Raphael hasn't built any rides on here yet," Hwang pointed out. "We could grab some tools and start building without anyone really caring."

Too bad someone did care; it was the new ride planner and his crew of workers who just arrived to start the construction on the new ride of Wind Whirler. "Hey! You guys aren't supposed to be here! Didn't you see the don't trespass sign?"

"What if we don't want to leave?" Yun-Seong shouted rebelliously.

"Yeah, what are you going to do about it?" Seong-Mina added.

The workers merely held up their hammers, saws, and other construction items. Someone even held up a chain-saw. The architect stepped forward menacingly. "I give you guys three seconds to leave before I give the orders for my men to start our construction work, by removing you in a very painful way.

Yun-Seong and Mina were about to raise their weapons for a fight but Hwang (the only sensible one) grabbed his teammates and leaped off the stage. "No guys, I'm not going to die for such a stupid reason. We're going to look for Raphael and find a way to con him into giving us the stage." And the three disappeared from sight.

* * *

><p>Sitting on a park bench, Talim was devouring her eighth ice cream cone but it was not helping her feel better at all. Raphael appeared by her side holding another strawberry flavoured ice cream cone and shook his head at the amount of money he was wasting. He was going to have to try and cheer the priestess up before he ran out of money. "Talim, you're overreacting. This whole business is getting rather silly. Grow up, accept it, and move on."<p>

It was probably the worst pep talk in the world because that only made Talim cry even harder. "Wahhh! I'm such a loser! I- wah!" People walking by were starting to give them funny looks. One guy came up to Talim and said, "Is he giving you problems miss?"

Raphael pushed the guy aside and said, "Go away and mind your own business. She's perfectly fine." Talim picked the perfect moment to let out another loud 'wahhh!" and she grabbed Raphael's cape to blow her nose.

Raphael screamed and snatched his cape out of her hands. Holding the dirtied fabric in his hands, he felt his blood pressure climbing. A young teenager walked up beside him and whispered, "I'd advise you to buy her a present or something. She'll stop crying in no time."

"Are you sure?" Raphael whispered back.

"Yeah, make it something cute. I'm sure it'll make her forget about whatever she's crying about." The girl looked around and pointed to one of the prize games. "Go over there and try to win something from that game booth."

Raphael sighed. Why was he wasting time on such silliness? But Talim was a valuable asset to his team. He shuddered to think of the damage she would wreck if she was on the other team. He shoved the strawberry ice cream in Talim's hand and said, "Stay here. I'll be right back."

Talim merely continued eating her ice cream and crying. Raphael stomped over to the balloon popping game and said, "Servant, hand me something cute from the prizes."

The people playing the dart game glared at him. A little boy pointed and shouted, "You a chetah! Not fair mister chetah! You have to win it fair and sqware!"

Narrowing his eyes at the little boy, Raphael said, "I own this place, so I can do whatever I want. And it's not chetah, it's cheater little boy."

The boy then proceeded to scream at the top of his lungs, "Cheater! You're a cheater! You can't win fair and sqware! You're lame!"

"How dare you! I can win this game with my eyes closed!" He whipped out his baby bat wallet and handed the game attendant a twenty. "Give me some darts; I'll pop ten balloons easy." The game attendant pocketed the money and gave his master some very pointy and sharp darts.

Holding the darts in his hand, Raphael smirked at the kid and he flinged them at the balloons all at once. Ten loud pops were heard. "Hah! You see? Now that's what I call skills."

He was looking at the prizes and wondering which stuff animal he should get for Talim when the little kid piped up again, "Liar, liar, pants on fire! You said you can do this with your eyes closed!"

Raphael groaned and closed his eyes. "Why do my problems always revolve around kids?" Turning to look at the boy, he said, "Look, I'm a very busy man. I've got better things to do than listen to you and your ridiculous antics."

"You're...callimg me... ridikcolos?" And the little kid eyes began to water. "WAHH!"

"Ok, you know what, I'll throw them blindfolded. And if I actually win, I'll get you a stuff animal. Will you please stop crying, I've already made two girls cry today, there's no need to add you on the list" said Raphael as he rolled his eyes. The sound of little kids crying was beginning to give him a headache.

"Yay! Thanks mister."

Turning to the game attendant, Raphael forked over another twenty. Tying a red blindfold around his head, he held the darts in his hand and swallowed nervously. With a flick of his wrists, he hurled them through the air. And he heard someone scream "YOWCH! I'm going to sue you for this!"

That did not sound good...

* * *

><p>Darkwings13: I couldn't think of a way to get Olcadan to be in the story but then I watched Harry Potter and I thought the idea of having Olcadan be in charge of some kind of weapon delivery service would be kind of cool so there you go. And do you guys like long chapters, or short ones? I can update more if the chapters are shorter but personally, I like reading longer chapters so I'm really not sure. Feel free to tell me what you guys like. So, who's going to sue Raphael? Where are the chain of people flying around going to end up? What is Zasalamel going to do? The only hint I'll give you guys is that Link is going to show up in the next chapter.<p> 


	8. Injuries and More Injuries

"You've got to be kidding me!" cried Yun-Seong as he looked at the dart impaled in the middle of his right buttock.

"Quick, put on your shades before Raphael recognizes us!" Hwang quickly slid the dark sunglasses on Yun-Seong's face.

"You're more worried about that guy recognizing us then my butt!"

Seong-Mina cracked him on the head and he fainted. Hwang stared at the violent Korean girl. "What did you do that for?"

She shrugged. "At least he can't blow our cover if he's unconscious. And it'll make the injury look worse. Listen, I have a plan to get Raphael to hand us the place for our headquarter." She quickly whispered the plan and Hwang grinned.

Raphael twiddled his thumbs and wondered whether he would be able to run away from the scene of the crime. On the bright side, he had managed to pop two deluxe balloons so he would be able to get an even better prize from the game booth. On the not so bright side, he was going to get sued.

"Hey mister, aren't you going to go over to check on the guy with the dart in his butt?" babbled the little boy.

Raphael glared at him. "It's your fault that I'm in this mess. If you hadn't told me to throw the darts blindfolded, then this wouldn't have happened!"

The kid backed away slowly. When he covered sufficient distance away from Raphael, he ran away screaming. "You're a meanie!"

Raphael rolled his eyes and began contemplating what he should do. Option 1, blackmail. No, he didn't know anything about those fancy suits for that to work. Option 2, bribes. Yes, that would probably work. Turning to the servant he said, "Grab me two of the prizes that I won, and throw them in a bag for me. I'll be right back."

"Yes my lord." And the servant gave a quick bow.

Strolling toward his unfortunate victim who was unconscious, he cleared his throat and looked at the two impeccably dressed persons standing beside their friend. "So, I can assume your his friends?" Raphael eyes flicked over at the still knocked out Yun-Seong.

"Yes, yes we are," answered Seong-Mina.

Hwang adjusted his fake moustache and nodded. "So, are you going to take responsibility for this?"

Raphael sighed and reached for his wallet. "How much do you want?" He held up a cheque and a pen.

Seong Mina leaned over and whispered, "We need to ask for an outrageous price that he won't be able to pay. And then you'll ask for the ownership of Talim's stage."

Hwang nodded. Facing Raphael, Hwang held up five fingers.

"You want five thousand dollars for a minor butt wound!" shouted Raphael angrily. Greedy bastards, they cared more about the money than their friend!

Seong-Mina shook her head. "Actually, he meant five million."

He threw the cheque in her face and stormed off. "Forget it; I can hire a lawyer at half that price."

Hwang leaped forward and grabbed Raphael's legs. "NO! Don't go! Zasalamel will kill us – I mean, can't we work something out?"

"Hey let go of my legs you fool!"

The two struggled against each other and Hwang accidently gave Raphael a black eye. Stumbling backwards, Raphael gingerly touched his eye and howled. "AHH! My eye! I'm going to sue you for this!"

Hwang gulped. "I'm sorry?" Damn, their plan was falling apart. It looks like they're going to have to double their efforts. "Hey I have an idea, why don't you give us ownership of the Village of the wind stage as retribution. We're professional entrepreneurs and we'll split the profit with you."

"And we can shake hands and forget about this whole mess ok?" Seong-Mina added hastily.

"Are you kidding me! How dare you offer me such a lame deal! This face of mine is worth more that those nice and exspensive clothes you're wearing! No deal!" And Raphael turned away from them.

Seong-Mina grabbed onto his arm and said, "We'll give you a two thousand dollar Armani watch as well. Deal?"

He stopped and thought about it for a moment. He did like that brand and their proposal wasn't too bad. "Fine, but the profits you make off the stage will be split 60 and 40. I'll take 60% of the profit."

"It's a deal then, sign here and we can go our separate ways." Hwang whipped out an official document out of nowhere and pressed a fancy quill pen into Raphael's hand. As the man with the blacked eye finished signing, Seong-Mina threw him Yun-Seong's gold watch.

The three gave Raphael a quick wave before they dashed off with their friend in their arms. He shrugged and returned to the game booth to collect his prize. Heading back to where Talim was sitting (and still crying) he cleared his throat. She glanced up at him and screamed. "Oh my wind! What happened to your eye! It looks like you tried putting on eyeliner and failed miserably Raphael!"

He grinds his teeth and counted to ten. She was important to the team, control your temper Raphael, you can do this. "It's... nothing. Here, this is for you." Handing over the bag, he watched as Talim curiously pulled out the prizes. One was a little kitty cat stuff animal. The other was a... deluxe Raphael plushie! His eyes widened as she held the mini plushie in her hand. Damn, she was going to get the wrong ideas because of this! Why did his servant have to pick this one!

To his immense relief, she seemed oblivious to the fact that he just gave her a plushie version of himself to her. "Yay! They're so cute!" She hugged them and gave him a cheerful smile. "Thanks for getting me these cute plushies! But next time, can you get me the Yun-Seong one? That one is alittle cuter."

He growled, "I threw a dart in somebody's butt and ended up with a black eye for that thing and you want me to get a different one?"

She stared at him for abit and then she deftly plucked her ice cream out of the cone and slapped it onto his black eye. "Does that feel better?"

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR!" cried Raphael as he wiped the melting strawberry ice cream off his face.

She shrugged and looked at him innocently. "I don't have any ice so I substituted with ice cream. It doesn't hurt so much now right? I thought that the pain was making you grumpy."

His cellphone rang, and he reached into his pocket to answer it. "Hello? Amy? Are you serious? Ok, I'll head over there right away." He groaned and stomped off. Talim followed closely behind with her cat and Raphael plushie and kept on inquiring about his eye.

* * *

><p>Dangling from the ceiling, Taki wasted time by counting the gold coins beneath her." One million four thousand and three, one million four thousand and four, one million four thousand and-."<p>

"Taki! Where are you?" shouted Mitsurugi who finally arrived to save his comrade. There was a big red lump on his forehead with the imprint of Setsuka's shoe imprinted on it.

"Up here! I'm up here!" cried a really happy Taki. She had been hanging upside down for more than half the day and the blood that's been rushing to her head was really starting to make her dizzy. "Hurry up and get me down already Mitsurugi."

Looking up at the ceiling, Mitsurugi opened his mouth in amazement. "You've been stuck up there for over eight hours?"

Taki rolled her eyes at the samurai. "Yeah. And I would really appreciate it if you would get me down already."

Mitsurugi looked around for something to get Taki down. "I'm sorry Taki, but I don't see a ladder anywhere." He thought about the situation for abit and then he nodded. Taking his katana out, he aimed it at the dangling ninja.

"Hey! Watch where you point that thing! What on earth are you doing?" screamed Taki frighteningly.

"I'm sorry but this is the only idea I got. If you have a better suggestion then feel free to speak up." Squinting, Mitsurgi aimed his sword at the chains wrapped around Taki. "Ok, I'm going to throw it. You might want to close your eyes if you're feeling squeamish."

Taki yelled, "If you hit any of my body part with that sword of yours, I'm going hunt you down like a demon. Got it!"

Mitusurgi smirked. "How can you compare me to a normal demon? Even the king of hell can't stand against my blade." And he hurled the sword through the air.

Surprisingly, it cut through all of the ninja's chain. On the other hand, it also tore through the fabric on her chest. Clutching the torn fabric around her breast, she leaped down and glowered at him. "I told you not to hit anywhere else besides the chains."

Mitsurugi shrugged and tried to look away from Taki's revealing chest. "Fabric doesn't count."

"Take this pervert!" Mitsurugi looked up to see Taki throwing a million ninja stars at him.

"Hey! Is that anyway to thank the guy who just rescued you!" screamed the samurai as he ran away from the raging ninja.

Taki merely answered him by adding a few deadly shurikens to the deadly barrage of ninja stars.

* * *

><p>"It sure is nice up here, right Link?" said Scherazade as she gazed off into the sunset. A picnic basket laid beside her while her cousin was eating another sandwich. They were sitting on top of a very big hill, and many other people were sitting around sightseeing, or just taking a short break from all of the excitement of Soul Land.<p>

Swallowing his third sandwich, Link nodded.

"It feels like something's missing though. Ever since we've met those creeps this morning, I haven't been able to completely unwind."

"Shah, yah. (I know what you're talking about. Those guys made a dent in my Ferrari and I'm itching to repair it when I have the time)," Link replied sourly.

Scherazade crossed her legs and frowned. "We should probably head back to the hotel. This place is going to close in a few hours and I've had enough fun for today."

"Hyah? Huh. (Do you want me to play my ocarina before we go?)," Link suggested. His cousin did look pretty tired.

His cousin nodded and made herself comfortable on the picnic blanket as Link took out his ocarina. As he put the instrument to his lips and began playing, Scherazade felt much better and a bunch of people moved closer to listen to the pretty melodies. Too bad that only lasted about five mins because the roar of some motorcycle cut through the music like wet paper and when Scherazade opened her eyes, she nearly spit out the water she was drinking. A strange flying motorcycle was quickly approaching them and there was a long chain of people dangling from it who were screaming at each other. "When was the last time you took a bath Cervantes? I can smell your stench all the way down here!" Cassandra shouted loudly.

"I'm a pirate you bimbo! We don't take baths!"

Kilik gave a loud sigh of exasperation. "When are we going to agree that it would be in everyone's best interests if we stopped fighting for one minute to get back on the ground?"

Lloyd looked at the gas meter and gulped. "Don't worry, we're going to be coming down really soon. And by that, I mean we're going to crash!"

"NO! I want to see Bangoo before I die!" cried Rock.

"Hyah! (Cousin, look over there)!"

She turned to her left and her mouth parted in open. "You've got to be kidding me!"

Tira was flying toward them as well (carried by her watchers). Unlike normal people, instead of running away, she flew toward the chain of people. "Ooooo, that looks like so much fun. Can I join?"

"NO!" cried everybody who was hanging on for their dear life.

Tira shifted into her gloomy side. "No one can tell what I can or cannot do!" yelled Tira as she leaped onto the chain and latched onto Sophitia's foot.

The Greek mother groaned, "Why do I always have to deal with her?"

Zasalamel suddenly popped up beside Scherazade and he gave an exasperated sigh. "Why does this always happen to me?"

Before Scherazade knew it, Raphael and Talim popped up beside her as well and Raphael said the exact same thing. "Why does this always happen to me?"

Drawing out his new and very shiny scythe in less than a second, Zasalamel growled at the vampire lord "You've finally shown yourself Raphael! Prepare for your punishment!"

"Hah! You can't wait for that to happen in your next life. But I'm not going to lose to a fool like you!" retorted Raphael arrogantly as he drew his Flambert as well.

The two launched themselves at each other and began fighting. Talim looked at the incoming disaster and said, "Ummm, aren't we going to do something before they crash?"

Raphael and Zasalamel couldn't hear her over the roar of their insults. "You're so lame with all you your silly bat decorations and accessories. What are you, a Dracula wannabe?"

"How dare you! For one thing, I am a vampire. And second, you look like you came out from some pathetic occult movie. What's with the ugly looking robe and gold eye!" said Raphael as he dodged one of Zasalamel's attacks.

"If you must know, this robe is ten times better than that ugly outfit you were wearing in Soul Calibur two!"

"Which one are you talking about? I had three outfits in that game," Raphael replied peevishly.

"The third one you imbecile!"

Talim yelled, "Guys! They're coming straight at us! Do something!"

Zasalamel and Raphael stumbled and tripped over Scherazade's picnic basket and spilled the food all over her and Link.

"That's it! This is my first day of my vacation and you guys have ruined it!" cried the angry elf girl as she whipped out her own rapier.

"Nha Hya! (No cousin! We need to get out of here before that those guys crash toward us!) Pulling Scherazade away, Link whipped out another bomb and threw it behind them.

At the same time, the motorcycle and its passengers descended on the hill just as the bomb blew up. "Ahh!" screamed Talim, Raphael, and Zasalamel as the people crashed on top of them and the whole hill blew up.

Watching from her computer screen, Amy rubbed her eyes tiredly and picked up her cellphone and dialled 911. "Hello? Can you send me about twenty ambulances? Yes. It'd be great if you can come as soon as possible."

* * *

><p>At the hospital that was conveniently located a few kilometres away from Soul Land...<p>

Amy, Siegfried, Setsuka, Maxi and Hilde pushed open the doors that led to their teammate's recovery room. Stepping through, Amy winced at the injuries their team had sustained. Kilik had two broken arms. Cassandra and her sister each had a broken leg. Talim had a few bandages on her arms but that was it ( the wind had protected her).Yoshimitsu was whittling a block of wood to replace his old wooden arm that broke in the explosion. Their guest character, Lloyd, had returned back to where he came from because when his motorcycle broke, it transported him back. Ivy's injuries were alittle funny though, she had about five rolls of bandages wrapped around her chests. Amy thought it did seem kind of logical since her breasts were pretty big so it would be rather susceptible to damage. Sitting beside her father's bed, she looked down at her father who was huddling under a pillow. "Come on father, it can't be that bad."

"No, you mustn't look at me Amy. I'm hideous," mumbled Raphael.

Siegfried merely pulled the pillow off Raphael's head. "Come one man, it can't be that- Oh my god! It is bad!"

Raphael's entire face was covered in bandages and with the rest of his body hidden under the blankets, he looked like he dressed up for the role as Pharaoh's mummy in some Egyptian horror movie. Anyway, Raphael grabbed the pillow and hid under it again. The next thing they know, Zasalamel came in. Well, to be more specific, he was in a wheel chair and his right leg was covered in a cast while Xianghua, Nightmare, Mitsurugi, Taki, Hwang, Seong-Mina and Yun-Seong wheeled him in.

"Show yourself, Raphael," Zasalamel commanded dangerously.

In reply, Raphael chucked his pillow at him. Everyone in the room gasped. The anger radiating from Zasalamel and Raphael were strong enough to burn a hole through the wall. Kilik mumbled something and everyone turned to face him. "Why don't we try using a peaceful method of communication before someone gets hurt again. As you can see, I don't have a third arm to break, "said Kilik as he motioned to his injured arms.

"Your boyfriend made a very good point Xianghua. Very well, I shall try to make this conversation as less painful for you as possible Raphael," said Zasalamel.

Raphael sneered (but no one can tell under the bandages). "Looking at you is enough to make it pretty painful- ouch!"

Amy pinched him and gave him a –don't say anything stupid that'll make him kill us- look.

Zasalamel smiled." With your entire face being wrapped in bandages, it's a miracle that you cans still speak Raphael. Too bad the words coming out of it is as stupid as ever."

Raphael swallowed the urge to throw some more insults and faced Zasalamel. "What do you want?"

Stroking his chin, he replied, "Instead of continuing our battle like this, I suggest we try a more civilized method that can determine which side is deserving of Soul Calibur's powers. Of course, it'll be my side who'll win and the first thing we're going to do, is fix this world that you've created."

"Oh please, my side is obviously more superior to your. There's no doubt that we'll win." Raphael leaned back against his bed. "So, what method do you suggest we try?"

Rubbing his shoulders Zasalamel said, "Why, there's nothing better than a legal competition. But this one will have some very different rules to it. It's not a specific contest. There'll be many trials we'll have to complete, such as a poetry contest, a drama play, etc. To summarize, we'll just draw random challenges out of a hat. Best out of two out of three wins. After we've recovered, we shall decide on the judges. Do you accept my challenge?"

"You're on. Get ready to weep when you lose baldie," Raphael replied confidently.

As Zasalamel turned to leave, he snapped his finger and a black hole warped Raphael and his team away. No one dares call him baldie without getting sucked into a black hole. "Curse you Zasalamel! You're just jealous of my gorgeous crown of hair!" screamed Raphael.

"You idiot, you just had to make him angry don't you! This is going to ruin my hair!" Maxi shouted as he spiralled into the vortex.

Talim clutched her plushies and screamed as she got sucked into the black hole. "Wind, help me!"

Feeling sorry for the poor kid, Setsuka held out her hand and grabbed Talim as she flew past the priestess. "You can hold on to me child. But make sure you don't rip my kimono."

Cassandra and Sophitia held on to each other and as they whirled pass Raphael, both of them used their uninjured leg to kick him in the stomach. "Can't you keep your big mouth shut for once!" yelled Cassandra as she disappeared into the void.

Amy and Kilik flew past him and rolled their eyes at him. "Thanks alot father."

Hilde stabbed her lance into the hospital floor and held on tightly. As Siegfried flew by, she grabbed his hand. "Hilde, you saved me!" And Siegfried's eyes began watering because he was getting emotional.

Hilde grinned. "Of course I'll save you! Even though I'm mad at you, it doesn't mean I don't care about you."

Nightmare stepped toward them and smiled evilly. "This is revenge for dropping me into a hot pot. Fall into the darkness Siegfried!" And Nightmare removed the lance from the floor and chucked the two into the black hole. "Curse you Nightmare!"

Ivy swings her sword forward and had it lash onto Nightmare. "There's no way I'm going into that thing! And if I am, I'm taking you with me." And the two inched closer and closer into the vortex.

"Let go of me woman!" screamed Nightmare as he struggled to disentangle himself from Valentine. "I was the one that helped you made this sword!" Speaking to the sword he said, "That would make me, your father. So let go!"

The sword merely held on tighter and Ivy laughed. "Ha! Guess what Nightmare; Valentine said it misses its father. You can spend some quality time with us in the black hole."

"NOOOOOO!" and Nightmare disappeared along with the still laughing alchemist.

When all of Raphael's groupie disappeared into the black hole, Zasalamel snapped his fingers and the hole disappeared.

"So… why didn't we rescue Nightmare" asked Seong-Mina.

Yun-Seong shrugged. "No one wanted to risk getting sucked into the hole."

"So, what's going to happen to them?" Mitsurugi asked curiously.

Zasalamel merely shrugged. "Don't worry, they won't die. They'll come back after a few hours." And he left the room while the rest of his uninjured teammates trailed out after him.

* * *

><p>Darkwings13: i'll try to get the other characters alittle more involved in the next chapter, don't worry. Did anyone noticed that Astaroth and Ashlotte was missing? No, I haven't forgotten about them. You'll understand why they weren't there in the next chapter. Anyway, I'm going to return to my studies. Thanks for all the kind reviews so far, it made me feel better after studying for four hours.<p> 


	9. Shopping and Madness

One week of intense physical therapy later...

Team Draw had finally recovered from their injuries and was now heading to their headquarters that Yun-Seong claims to be 'the best headquarter the world has ever seen.'

"Just wait till you see it, you're eyes will pop open in the admiration of such godly beauty. Why, if Sophitia was here, she'd probably think it was the home of the gods," laughed a very enthusiastic Yun-Seong as the group moved past the force field by going underground again.

"It's too bad Nighty isn't here to see it though," Tira said wistfully.

After getting sucked into the black hole, he came out as a very different man. The only thing he kept saying was nightmares over and over. Nightmare, along with Raphael's group was still at the hospital, receiving intense mental therapy. Rumors have it that Maxi suffered the worse from it and no one has seen him for days. No one has seen Astaroth, Dampierre or Ashlotte for awhile as well. "Oh well, I hope Nighty will like the get well present I'm going to get him."

Cervantes raised an eyebrow. "What are you getting him?"

Tira giggled and slapped him playfully. "Golly gosh, I can't tell you. It wouldn't be a surprise anymore. "

Rubbing his sore arms, Cervantes gave a curt humph. "Whatever."

Meanwhile Xianghua was talking on her cellphone with Kilik's nurse. "Make sure my Kilik eats his meals everyday ok? Oh, and stop him from training in bed, it's not good for his posture. Oh, make sure he flosses his teeth when he's done eating. Yeah that's it. Oh wait, make sure he takes his medicine on time. Ok bye."

Rock turned to Xianghua and said, "Who were you talking to?"

"I was talking to his nurse; I want to make sure that he knew what he was doing."

"Hssh? (What do you mean he?)" said Voldo.

Again, with Astaroth missing, no one can understand and a few minutes later, Seong-Mina asked the same question. "What do you mean he?"

Xianghua giggled. "There's no way I'm going to let my Kilik spend more time with some nurse than his girlfriend. Sooo, I went to alot of trouble to find a male nurse to take care of him."

Taki gave Xianghua a high five. "That was really smart of you. I'm impressed."

Zasalamel looked at Soul Land's map and frowned. "Where are we suppose to be heading anyway?"

Hwang grabbed the map out of his hand and said, "Here, just follow me guys."

* * *

><p>At the hospital...<p>

"For the millionth time, I already flossed my teeth! Will you stop bothering me!" cried Kilik as he and his male nurse played a game of tug of war with his Kali-Yuga.

"Please let go of the weapon mister Kilik. I've been told that you needed to rest" The nurse pulled even harder and continued. "Therefore, you cannot train right now. I'll just lock your staff safely away." With a final yank, the nurse ran away with Kilik's staff.

Talim looked over and a gale of wind accidently hit the staff user. "Ahh, I'm sorry! Are you alright?"

Kilik looked up at her from the floor and sighed tiredly. "Still having problems controlling the wind Talim?"

Talim hugged her plushies and sobbed. "It's terrible. That black hole of Zasalamel must've done something to my powers. Wherever I go, some wind disaster is sure to happen. I'm like a walking bad luck charm!"

Next to her, Yoshimitsu also cried. "Please stop crying child. What happened to me in that black hole was much worse than what happened to thou."

"Why what happened?" Kilik asked curiously.

"I got warped to a world where everyone thought I was ugly!" And Yoshimitsu huddled under his blankets.

"But no one can see your face," Kilik pointed out.

"They made fun of my mask!"

Raphael snickered from across Kilik's bed. "You think that's bad? I got warped to Egypt and a bunch of Egyptians thought their Pharaohs came back to life!"

Talim tilted her head in confusion. "How's that a bad thing?"

"They tried to make me return to the world of the dead. It took me hours to get out of that casket they locked me in and an extra two hours to find my way out of that stupid pyramid," Raphael replied curtly.

"Oh..." Talim looked away and another gust of wind struck someone, Nightmare. "Oh sorry."

Nightmare screamed and scrambled under his bed. Peeking out, he grabbed his blankie and crawled back under there.

"I wonder what happened to him in that black hole," Yoshimitsu said curiously.

Raphael shrugged, "All I know is that Siegfried's happy about this new Nightmare."

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Setsuka and Ivy were currently talking to their psychiatrist about what they've seen in the black hole.<p>

Setsuka's doctor pushed his glasses up his nose and said, "Are you ready to tell me about what happened in that black hole Setsuka?"

Setsuka hugged her umbrella and shook her head. "I'm going to kill Mitsurugi."

The doctor sighed. "Setsuka, you've said the same thing for five days now."

"I'm going to kill Mitsurugi."

"Setsuka?"

"I'm going to kill Mitsurugi."

"Next!" And Setsuka was escorted out and Ivy took her place in the comfortable chair. The doctor faced Ivy and said, "Ivy, are you ready to tell me what you saw in the black hole?"

Ivy hugged her whip and said something rather similar to Setsuka. "I'm going to kill Cervantes."

"Are you going to keep repeating that?"

"I'm going to kill Cervantes."

"Ok, I quit!" And the doctor walked out.

* * *

><p>Hilde and Siegfried were trying to forget about their experiences in the black hole by duelling each other in the old people ward. The nurses weren't too happy about it. "Hey, can you two stop bothering these poor old people. They need to take their naps!"<p>

Some of the old people began protesting. "No way, we're not tired."

"Yeah, these old bones of mine don't need some silly nap to be strong. Ouch, my back!"

"Who do you think you are to tell us what to do you whipper snappers!"

Siegfried dodged one of Hilde's strikes and retaliated by swinging his sword up high. The light flashed off his sword and armour and it blinded everyone that was in the vicinity. Including the doctors who arrived to tell the two soul Calibur superstars to get back to bed. "Ahh, my eyes!"

The couple made their escape and ran away. "Hilde, this isn't working! I can still feel the horrors of the black hole clinging to me!"

The princess wiped away a bead of sweat and said, "Let's head to the kitchen. We can try and forget our troubles by gorging large amount of food. I want chocolate! Lots and lots of chocolate!"

"And I want steak. Lots and lots of steak!"

* * *

><p>It looks like the black hole had done some serious damage to our beloved knight and princess. Meanwhile, Maxi had barricade himself in his room by pushing the beds and other heavy furniture against the door. Five nurses and two doctors were pushing as hard as they can but the door was stuck tight. "Mister Maxi, it's ok. We're here to help you!"<p>

"No! I won't let you in! Go away!" And Maxi proceeded to barricade his window as well.

"Won't you at least give us a reason why?"

Maxi merely adjusted the hat on his head. "No!" And he resumed pounding some nails over the boards on his window.

* * *

><p>The only people who had recovered completely from Zasalamel black hole was Sophitia, Cassandra and Amy. Those three were back at Raphael's castle, preparing themselves for the contest up ahead.<p>

Stepping out of their rooms, dressed as superspies they nodded to each other. The only way to secure victory was to spy on their enemies and learn all their strengths and weaknesses. Sophitia was alittle hesitant about the whole plan though. "It kind of feels like we're cheating."

Cassandra waved it off. "We're doing it for the sake of the world sister. Anyway, my adorable nephew and niece haven't got the chance to play around in Soul Land yet."

Sophitia grimaced. "Well then, for the sake of my children, I will do this. But we're going to be pretty noticeable if we're wearing tight black suits in the middle of the day."

Amy shrugged. "They say the best place to hide is the most obvious one. Therefore, following that logic, because we look like superspies, no one will suspect us to be spies."

Cassandra thought about it for a moment before saying, "Are you sure you recovered from that black hole disaster Amy?"

Amy glared at her. "I'm perfectly fine. Besides, we have a master crook who'll be aiding us in this quest." And Amy brought Dampierre forth.

"Dampierre! Why are you here?" said a shocked Cassandra.

Dampierre fiddled with his moustache. "Why can't Le Bello be here?"

"Uhhhh... that's good point. But why are you on our side?" Cassandra replied.

Dampierre adjusted his hat before answering the Greek warrior. "Amy here has promised to pay more than Zasalamel for my services. I merely go to the highest bidder."

Amy cleared her throat impatiently and looked at her comrades. "Guys we're wasting time. Let's move." And the three fired up their new superspies's jetpack and flew out a window.

* * *

><p>"YUN-SEONG, SEONG-MINA, HWANG! WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS! WHY AM I CLIMBING A LADDER UP TO SOME GIANT TREEHOUSE!" screamed Zasalamel.<p>

The three Korean quickly scaled the ladder to get from the very angry man who was coming up after them. "You should at least give it a chance! I mean, at least the view here is nice," said a very panicky Yun-Seong.

"Yeah, and it took us ages to build this thing!" Seong-Mina added. Getting off the ladder, they ran into the treehouse and slammed it shut in Zasalamel's face.

"OPEN UP THIS DOOR IF YOU KNOW WHAT'S GOOD FOR YOU!"

Rock laid a hand on Zasalamel's back and said, "Hey, calm down man. This place isn't that back. It makes me feel like I've come back home again." Rock stared off into his daydreams of living back in the wild with his son Bangoo.

Tira laughed and came over to them. "Hey I like it here too. Look, my birds are already building their nests!"

Zasalamel glanced up to see a million ravens building their home on their headquarter. "How did they manage to plant such a large tree on the Village of the Wind stage anyway?"

"Zssgsh. (Who cares, I like it here too)," said Lizardman who was sunbathing on one of the tree's tree branches.

Cervantes and Voldo shrugged. "It's better than my cabin," said the pirate.

Zasalamel crossed his arms and looked at the rest of the group. They all gave him the –it's not too bad we can live here for awhile-look. "Fine, but I want to see the inside of this thing before I can declare it to be our new headquarter."

From behind the door, Hwang gave a nervous laugh. "Funny you should say that. We haven't had time to buy the furniture for the place yet. It's alittle empty inside. Please don't kill us!"

"WHAT DID YOU SAY! I'M GOING TO SUMMON MY BLACK HOLE AND-"

"It's ok Zasalamel. Most of Raphael's group is still recovering in the hospital. We have plenty of time to prepare for the contest." Xianghua pointed out.

Taki whipped out her credit card and proceeded to climb down the ladder. "I always preferred decorating my own room instead of having others design it."

Zasalamel sighed and began climbing back down as well. "You guys can come out. Go buy your stuff, don't bother me and I won't kill you."

Lizardman continued sunbathing from his tree branch.

* * *

><p>At Soul Land's furniture shop...<p>

Zasalamel was admiring a nice red sofa while the rest of his group members wandered around. No one was really sure why there was a furniture shop in an amusement park but they had all agreed that in this wacky world of Raphael's, anything could happen.

"I want this bed!" Cervantes declared as he pointed to a ship shaped bed. There was even a steering wheel attached to the headboards and the bed sheets had his face on it. Yep, it was a deluxe Cervantes bed that can only be bought in Soul Land. Normal people would've walked up to the counter and purchased the thing, but Cervantes was a pirate, he doesn't pay for anything. Making sure that no one was looking, he used his ghostly powers to teleport himself and the bed out of there. A sales man walked past and frowned. "I swear, I thought there was a bed there this morning."

* * *

><p>On the other side of the shop, Tira was having trouble deciding on which bed she wanted. The one with Nightmare on it or the one with her on it. "I think this looks sort of cute," thought her jolly side.<p>

"No, this one is better," thought her gloomy side.

"No this one."

"No way, this one."And that continued on for quite some time.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Mitsurugi was admiring an oriental vase and he thought it would be a very nice piece of art to have in their headquarter. But as he touched it, it crumbled into dust. "What the?"<p>

Rock popped up beside him and said, "I guess you're so strong that touching fragile objects would make them break."

A very angry saleswoman showed beside them. "You're going to be paying for that sir."

The samurai sighed and took out his wallet. Looking through it, he blanched. "I currently don't have any money on me right now."

"I see." She grabbed his katana and walked away with it. "This sword can be used to replace that vase as decorative furniture then."  
>"A sword is not meant to be looked at! Real men use it as a weapon!" And Mitsurugi chased after her.<p>

Rock had a hammock in his hand and he went to the counter to pay. The cashier scanned the item and said, "That would be sixty dollars sir."

Pulling out his wallet, he blanched as well. "Keep this on hold, I'll be right back."

Ten minutes later...

Rock returned with a dead lion. Dropping it on the counter, Rock said, "Is this enough to pay for the hammock?"

"Sir, we only take cash."

"But I'm sure you can skin its fur and make it into some exspensive rug and sell the thing."

"Sir, legally we can't do that. And you've just killed an extinct animal. The animal justice league is right behind you."

Rock turned around just as the chief of the animal justice league handcuffed him. "Do not resist or talk. Anything that you say can be held against you in court." And they dragged Rock away.

* * *

><p>"Oh! Taki look! It's a painting of me, Kilik and Maxi!" Xianghua enthusiastically pointed out the painting.<p>

Taki looked at the price tag and grimaced. "That thing costs twenty thousand dollars Xianghua. Are you sure you'll be able to afford that?"

The Chinese girl giggled. "My money is running alittle low, but I could always use Kilik's account."

The ninja looked surprised at what she said. "Kilik gave you his bank account number? Wow, he must really trust you."

Xianghua nodded and proceeded to the cashier to make the purchase. She lined up behind Voldo and decided to greet him. "Hey Voldo, what's up?"

Voldo turned around and gave a slight nod.

"Whatcha buying?" asked Xianghua.

Voldo pointed to a gleaming brown dining table and a set of dining chairs. "Wow, that looks pretty exspensive? Are you buying it for the team? "

Voldo nodded. "Shhss (Yes)."

Xianghua gave him a high five and said, "Awww, that's so sweet. You know what big guy; I'll do something nice for you too. Wait here, I'll be right back." As she turned away to leave, she quickly remembered her painting and said, "Oh make sure no one buys that painting." She pointed to her painting and ran off.

* * *

><p>The three Korean were shopping around in an electronic shop and Yun-Seong ran over a hugged a Wii to his chest. "Guys, I've always wanted one of this!"<p>

"Are you kidding me? The PS3 is the best!" said Hwang as he held up an unopened package of a PS3.

Seong-Mina rolled her eyes at the two. "You two are obviously crazy. The Xbox is the best." And she held up the brand new console.

Just then, a kid walked past them. But he looked really familiar for some reason... "Have we seen that kid somewhere?" asked Seong-Mina.

Yun-Seong pulled out his cellphone and quickly glanced through it. He finally found the picture he wanted and gasped. "OMG! I think that's Bangoo!"

"Why do you have a picture of Bangoo?" Hwang asked.

"Rock sent us a picture of his son and he said that if we find him, we were to tell him immediately," Yun-Seong replied. "He said that when Raphael created this world, Bangoo wouldn't live the way of the jungle anymore or something like that. They had a fight and Bangoo ran away to Soul Land. That's why Rock is on our side."

Seong-Mina stared at him. "Why didn't we get the message?"

"He only sent it to one person on each team. Things were alittle chaotic so I forgot to mention it to you guys."

Hwang poked the two and said, "Shouldn't we go after him?"

"Yeah, we should. But I'm going to buy my Wii first!" And Yun-Seong ran away to buy his console with Hwang and Seong-Mina running closely behind him.

* * *

><p>"Miss Talim. You have some visitors," said one of the nurse.<p>

Talim opened her eyes and stopped meditating. "Oh, I wonder who it could be."

Algol, Kami and Arcturus walked in and Kami held a small bouquet of lilies in her hands. "Good afternoon Talim, how are you feeling?" said Algol.

A sudden gust of wind struck him and Talim cried. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to. I- wahhhhhh!"

Raphael groaned. "Why am I always around when she's crying?" he thought to himself. Getting off the bed, he grabbed her medicine and gave it to her. Most people may not have read his Soul Calibur two profile information, but his skills with medicine was as good as fencing skills. The only reason he made these pills for Talim was because he got sick of getting struck by the wind.

Talim swallowed the pill and gulped down some water. No gusts of wind struck anyone and she sighed in relief "Thanks Raphael, these wind controlling pills of your is working. I think."

Kami looked at the priestess curiously and said, "Is something wrong with your powers?"

Raphael began explaining to Oni girl that ever since Talim got sucked into the Black hole, her powers have been kinda wacky.

"Father, I'm sure you can do something about this right?"

Algol looked at his son and stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Was she the only one that got affected?"

By this time, Yoshimitsu and Kilik had also joined in on the conversation. "No, everyone on our team got sucked into the blackhole and we were all affected," said Kilik. "Some were more affected than others. Me, Talim, Yoshimitsu and Raphael are still pretty mentally stable so we're in this room. The others are a different story."

Yoshimitsu added his little bit of knowledge to the conversation as well. "Last time I heard, Hilde and Siegfried escaped from their rooms and are now running around the hospital somewhere. Ivy and Setsuka are locked up in a room somewhere and Maxi has barricaded himself in his room."

Algol processed the information and said, "I believe that I might be able to use the powers of Soul Calibur to heal you people. After all, I am the hero king"

Raphael snickered. "There's one problem with that theory of yours. We're not allowed to leave the hospital until we're completely cured because the doctors are afraid we'll go insane out there."

"Why don't we break out then?" Talim suggested.

Everyone looked at her in surprise. She was the last person they would've thought to suggest such a thing. Kilik whispered to Raphael ,"I think you've been a bad influence on her."

Before Raphael could reply, Algol said, "Good idea. My son, my daughter and I will head to Raphael's castle to prepare for the healing ceremony. After you guys save your comrades and break out of here, you can meet us there. Kami, show them the plan I've just whipped up."

Kami held up a cute diagram of what they were suppose to be doing and she began explaining. "Kilik can go and rescue his friend by infiltrating the vent system. Yoshimitsu will rescue Ivy and Setsuka by dressing up as their new psychiatrist. Talim will try to use the wind to try and track down Hilde and Siegfried and Raphael will go with her to make sure that her power doesn't go out of control. Any questions?"

Kilik raised up his hand, "Can I look for my Kali-Yuga as well?"

Kami nodded. "Well, I guess we should go now."

"Good lucks guys!" said Arturus as he and his family head out.

The four looked at each other and saluted each other. "May the wind be with you," said Talim.

The wind knocked Kilik and Yoshimitsu backward five feet away. "Oh I'm so sorry guys!"

Raphael rubbed his eyes and gave her another two pills.

* * *

><p>Darkwings13: Umm, I hope you guys like this chapter. Review if you have time. I've been feeling alittle unmotivated for some reason and some supportive comments would be nice. This chapter is dedicated to ThalieXVII for always supporting me in my writings and reading my story, including my other stories as well. I couldn't have asked for a better friend here on fanfiction. Oh, but I thank all of you who are reading as well. Have a good day, and enjoy the sunshine.<p>

Lizardman: Ssshhs. (Go sunbathe, it's good for the soul).


	10. Hospital Havoc

"No! I can't go to jail! I want a lawyer!" cried Rock as he shook the bars on his cell. The guy who was laying on the bed gave him a quick glance and said, "So why are you here?"

Rock replied that he killed a lion. "But I don't see what's wrong with that. I mean where I live, me and my son Bangoo would go hunting all the times. It's the code of the wild."

The guy tilted his head in confusion and said, "So... are you like some kind of caveman or something?"

Just then, a police officer came up to Rock. "Sir Rock?"

Rock nodded. "Yes that's me. Are you letting me go free?"

"No, but you may make one phone call for today before your trail start in about... two days."

Thinking hard, Rock decided to call Xianghua.

At the Soul Land's gift shop, Xianghua was purchasing the Voldo translator machine when her cellphone started ringing. Flipping it open, she held it to her ear and said "Xianghua, Kilik's only girlfriend here. Who is it?"

"Xianghua! Please, you've got to help me!"

Xianghua could hear the evident distress in Rock's voice and she quickly asked him what was wrong. The man cried and answered her that he was currently in jail because he killed a lion. The situation was quickly explained and Xianghua told him not to worry. "I'll fetch Zasalamel. He'll know what to do. Just hang tight Rock; we'll visit you as soon as possible." Paying for her item, she ran off to find Zasalamel.

* * *

><p>"Hey! Wait a minute Bangoo! Please stop running away from us!" Hwang cried out as he, Yun-Seong and Seong-Mina pursued Rock's son. Even though they were strong warriors, Bangoo was used to running around in the wild and escaping from dangerous animals so he was getting farther and farther away. The only one who was capable of matching Bangoo's speed was probably Kilik.<p>

The three panted to a stop and groaned at the pain in their sides. "This isn't working...we need to... find another way," Yun-Seong said tiredly.

The three nodded and quickly began discussing their courses of actions. "We should probably find Rock and tell him about this first. And then, we'll find some way to capture Bangoo using Zasalamel's powers of reading the future," Seong-Mina suggested.

"Ok, let's hurry then," said Hwang as the three left to look for Rock and Zasalamel.

* * *

><p>"Push it more to the left Zassy," said Tira who was leaning against a window as Zasalamel and Mitsurugi pushed their new sofa into the living room. It was quite amazing that their treehouse had five floors, three bathrooms, a big kitchen accompanied by a large dining room and of course, there were enough bedrooms for everyone.<p>

Mitsurugi and Zasalamel shoved the red sofa to the left but then Tira's gloomy side spoke up and said, "No, push it back alittle to the right."

The two groaned and pushed it back. But of course, life was sometimes cruel and Tira's jolly side said, "No no no. Push it to the left some more Zassy."

This went on for awhile...

* * *

><p>Peeking from behind a bush, Amy, Dampierre and the Greek sisters were lying in wait to ambush the furniture delivery men who were loading Team Draw's remaining purchases into a large moving truck. They would sneak into Team Draw's headquarters and bug the place with hearing and other spying devices. To be more specific, Amy and the sisters were hiding inside a giant crate while Dampierre was observing. The plan was called The Trojan Crate. Dampierre was say that this is a gift from the furniture shop for purchasing so many exspensive items and when the three girls are safely delivered into their headquarters, they would proceed with their espionage.<p>

Taking their time, they waited for everything to be packed in. When it was done Dampierre quickly shove the crate forward and he called out to the moving men. "Wait, you've forgot this!"

"Huh? I was pretty sure we have everything," one of the men said hesitantly.

Inside the cramped crate, Amy, Sophitia and Cassandra were trying to push each other out of the way for some breathing space so one of the men noticed that the box was slightly moving. "Hey, is that box moving?"

Dampierre grinned nervously and said, "No, you're just imagining things." He kicked the box and turned back to the men with a fake smile. "Oh look, it's Ivy in a white bikini!

The men quickly looked around for the gorgeous alchemist and Dampierre seized his chance. Using all of his strength, he tossed the box into the moving truck and assumed a nonchalant stance when the men turned around. The girls inside stifled their cries of pain as they were tossed inside and the box rolled to a stop among some of Team Draw's dining goods. "Curse you Dampierre, I think my back is broken," Cassandra mumbled.

"Can you get your abnormally large breasts out of my face," said Amy who was trying to shove Sophitia away from her. After looking around, the men turned back to Dampierre and said, "Are you sure? We can't see Ivy anywhere," one of the men said sadly.

"Oops, my mistake. Oh, look at the time, you guys should get going before your customers gets impatient," Dampierre gestured to his watch and the men quickly agreed with him.

"Good point dude, we wouldn't want that Zasalmel guy to suck us in his black hole like Raphael and his friends." The men looked over at the newspaper stand where that topic was still on the front page. Apparently, one of the nurses had snapped the picture and sold it for alot of money.

Dampierre watched the truck drive off before wincing at his strained back. It looks like he had pushed himself too hard when he threw the box in there. After all, with all three girls in there, it was pretty heavy. "Maybe that's why Cassandra and Sophitia never mentions their weight," thought Dampierre.

* * *

><p>Sitting in their beds, Kilik, Yoshimitsu, Talim and Raphael gave each other the –we're going to commence the plan-look. But then Talim spoke up and said, "What about Nightmare? Are we just going to leave him here?"<p>

They looked at Nightmare who was still hiding under the bed. The only reason he was in this room was because he didn't present a threat to people's safety and the hospital had ran out of rooms to stick him in. Raphael shrugged. "He's on the other team, there's no need to bother with him."

"Thou has a good point, but I wonder if we could use him to help our escape," said Yoshimitsu.

Kilik scratched his cheek and asked, "What do you have in mind?"

The man laughed and said, "Thou'll see...Now, does anyone have any leftover packages of ketchup from yesterday's lunch?"

Five minutes later...

A nurse was walking by their room when she suddenly stopped and gasped in horror. Pressing her face against the window, her eyes drank in the terrible sight. Nightmare was strangling the really hot Soul Calibur superstar Kilik and Raphael, Talim, and Yoshimitsu looked like they were dead. Blood (ketchup) was splattered everywhere and if she doesn't do something, more blood will be spilled. She ran away screaming for a doctor and some more nurses and someone with the keys to their room.

"I think I'm going to sneeze..." Raphael mumbled quietly into his pillow.

From her position on the ground, Talim said, "Just hold it in Raphael. That nurse will be coming back very soon to unlock our door."

"Do you think she can hurry it up? My arms are starting to get really tired." Kilik was grasping one of Nightmare's hands around his throat while the other one was holding the unconscious man up. Yep, they had dragged him from under his bed and knock the poor guy unconscious to portray this scene. Yoshimitsu had upturned all the beds and ripped a few pillows while Talim spread ketchup around the room. Raphael had helped Kilik get into position along with trying to make Nightmare stand up and they were now awaiting their chance for freedom.

"Guys! They're here!" said Yoshimitsu. All the 'dead' people quickly shut their eyes and held their breath.

The door slammed open and three doctors and the nurse walked in. "Oh my god! What happened in here!" cried one of the doctors.

The nurse ran over to Kilik and began helping him. "Mister Nightmare! What's gotten into you!" and she tried to pry Nightmare's hand off Kilik's throat but it was Kilik who was actually holding on to it.

"Everyone! Now!" cried Kilik as he shoved Nightmare away from him and into the nurse.

Raphael leapt off his bed and with a blanket in hand and he threw it over two of the doctors. Talim grabbed her blanket and ran over to the window to cover up what they were doing. Yoshimitsu and Kilik captured the other doctor and nurse and Yoshimitsu grinned. "My blanket is wide, but it lets nothing through."

"Nice try remixing your quote from the game but it just sounds lame," said Raphael as he strolled over to their captured victims. "Right, it's time to commence the next part of our plan."

"Sorry," mouthed the priestess and Kilik toward their captives.

A few minutes later, three doctors and a nurse left the room and locked it securely. Kilik was now Doctor Yuga and Yoshimitsu was now Doctor Yoshi. Raphael was just known as Doctor and Talim was nurse Windy, I mean Wendy. Kilik waved goodbye to the others as he looked for the ventilation system to infiltrate. Raphael and Talim headed toward the cafeteria because Talim said the wind said so.

"Are you sure the wind said that?"

A gust of wind slapped Raphael. "Ok, I guess the wind said that." They headed toward the cafeteria and Raphael gave Talim another pill to swallow.

Yoshimitsu looked at the PDA in his doctor's coat and saw that he would be talking to Ivy and Setsuka in twenty minutes. "Let's see... where is room 423?"

* * *

><p>"You know what! I think this is the perfect spot for the sofa!" And Zasalamel let go of the red sofa that he and Mitsurugi has been pushing back and forth for the past hour. The thing slammed onto the samurai's foot but Mitsurugi held in the painful tears and only let out a small "Ouch..."<p>

Tira laughed and said, "Yep! It's prefect!"

Zasalamel resisted the urge to strangle her and with a sigh, he turned to head toward his new bedroom for a much needed nap. Tira jumped up and down at the new Pokémon clock they've just installed in their living room and said, "Oh lookie! It's two o clock! I'm gonna go visit Nighty."

"I think I'll come with you, I need to get my foot X-rayed," mumbled Mitsurugi who was still trying to hold back his tears of pain.

Tira ran over to one of the empty crates and began digging around looking for something. "Ok, I found it! Let's get going Mitsu!"

Mitsurugi frowned at his new nickname but he looked at the small wrapped present in Tira's hand and asked, "What is it?"

"Oh this? It's Nighty's get well present."

Mitsurugi wondered what could it possibly be but he shoved the thought away and the two headed out of their treehouse/headquarter.

Just then, Xianghua, and our beloved Koreans ascended the ladder to the treehouse and scrambled around looking for Zasalamel. "Zasalamel! Where are you?" shouted Xianghua.

"Hey dude! Are you in here?" Yun-Seong glanced around the empty living room.

Seong-Mina popped up beside him and said, "Maybe he's decorating his new bedroom?"

The three and Xianghua climbed up a set of stair and without knocking, they shoved Zasalamel's door opened. Everyone froze at the sight of Zasalamel putting on some Pocahontas pyjamas for his nap.

"Are those what I think it is?" mumbled a stunned Hwang. Who knew that Zasalamel was a big fan of that Disney princess.

But anyway, Zasalamel face turned red with fury. "DON'T YOU PEOPLE KNOW HOW TO KNOCK BEFORE YOU ENTER!"

The four gulped nervously and gave him a sheepish smile. "Well... we have a really good reason for it," said Seong-Mina.

"IT HAD BETTER BE A GOOD REASON! HURRY UP AND SPIT IT OUT ALREADY!"

"Rock's in jail," said Xianghua

"We found Bangoo." Yu-Seong added.

"And then we lost him."And Hwang included in the last bit of information.

After a few minutes of deep discussion, Zasalamel rubbed his eyes tiredly. "I'm going to try a find a lawyer for Rock and the four of you can go look for Bangoo near the water stages. Such as the watermill valley stage(Talim's stage), the Pirate Raid stage (Cervantes stage), the battle in the strait stage (Mitsurugi's stage) and lastly, the Lost Cathedral stage (Siegrfried's stage)."

Yun-Seong raised his hand up "Why are there so many stages to search from?"

"Because the only thing I can see in my vision is Bangoo being surrounded by alot of water and the only other hint was that it's a Soul Calibur three stage! Now will you guys just go and search already!"

The four of them ran out and Zasalamel collapsed onto his bed and fell asleep. Too bad he forgot to close the door so now; whenever someone walked past his bedroom they could see his Pocahontas pyjamas. Thankfully, the only person to walk by so far was Voldo but he was blind so he didn't see anything. Walking into his bedroom, he noticed a wrapped present sitting on his bed. He picked it and unwrapped it. "Hsshh?"

The machine turned on and it began translating every word he said. "What is this?"

"Shhsh hssh."

"Ah, Xianghua must've bought this for me," translated the translator.

He placed the translator down carefully on his bed and made his way downstairs to make some lunch. If Xianghua showed up, he would make her a sandwich to say thanks. Scaling down the ladder, Xianghua and the three Koreans bumped into Taki and Lizardman. "Where are you guys going off in such a hurry?" said the ninja.

Xianghua quickly explained the situation and Taki and Lizardman quickly agreed to help. "Ok, let's start our search at the Water Mill Village stage," Yun-Seong suggested. "After all, I've been to that stage in the real game." And Bangoo search party headed off to the Water Mill Village Stage.

As they left, the delivery van showed up and the men began dragging the furniture inside. How they managed to carry the object up a ladder, no one was really sure. But it was a good thing they had alot of pulleys. But that's not important, what's important is that Amy, Sophitia, and Cassandra had successfully infiltrated Team Draw headquarter. Popping out of the box, they gave each other the thumbs up and quietly began sneaking around.

* * *

><p>"Psst... Maxi.. Wake up.. Psst!" Kilik groaned in frustration as his friend kept on snoring away. Up in the ceiling, trapped in the ventilation system, Kilik tried once again to wake his friend up. "MAXI! YOUR HAIR IS ON FIRE!"<p>

"Ahh! Someone put it out! Quickly quickly!" screamed Maxi as he leaped out of his bed and began running around.

Kilik pounded on the vent and said, "Maxi! Up here! Get me out of here!"

"Kilik? What are you doing up in the vents?"

"That's not important. What's important is that you get me out of here!"

But Maxi pulled his hat down securely on his head and turned around. "I'm sorry Kilik. But I cannot do that."

"Why not!" snapped Kilik. Someone was turning on the vents and a cold breeze was flowing past him.

"I don't want you to see me like this," sobbed Maxi.

"What are you talking about? There's nothing wrong with you."

Maxi whipped around and took off his hat. "Take a good look at this Kilik!"

Kilik's eyes widened in horror. The world's curliest and biggest afro was sitting on top of his friend's head. "Woahh... So that's why you barricaded yourself in this room."

Maxi jammed the hat back on his head and squished the afro out of sight. "Now, do you understand?"

A colder blast of air blew toward Kilik and the man struggled to hold on. "Can we talk about this later Maxi. I'm sure we'll find you some kind of hair conditioner that'll fix this. I know, let's look for Siegfried! He has tons of hair styling products like you do. I'm sure he must have something."

"I guess you have a point. But I'm still alittle scared to leave my room," Maxi said sadly.

Someone turned the vents on alittle higher because Kilik had jammed up the ventilation system. "Hurry up Maxi! Get me out of here!"

"Why aren't the stupid vents working!" grumbled Tira who was pressing the controls for the vent to Nightmare's room. She was sitting beside her unconscious boyfriend and waiting for him to wake up. The doctors had told her about Raphael and his team little escape and she had sent one of her raven to tell Zasalamel about this interesting piece of news. She turned back to her boyfriend and said, "Wake up already Nighty. Don't you want to see your girlfriend?"

Nightmare let out a loud snore. Tira sighed and returned to cranking up the powers to the vent. The immense power ripped away Kilik's pants just as Maxi opened the shaft to let his friend out. "Ahh! I can't leave this room without pants!" cried Kilik.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Raphael and Talim were having lunch in the cafeteria and Raphael was complaining about the food. "Sacrebleu! How can they expect me to eat this!" he exclaimed angrily.<p>

Talim continued munching on her salad and she poured some more of the French dressing Raphael brought to their table. "What are you talking about Raphael?" This food id delicious."

The Frenchman stabbed his carrot and began playing with it. "I can't believe they ran out of steaks and chocolate! And I hate carrots."

Talim swallowed and took a small sip of apple juice. "I hate celery, but my mom still makes me eat it. You shouldn't be too picky Raphael. Vegetables are good for your colon."

He rolled his eyes at her and continued poking his food. "Well, has the wind told you where Siegfried and Hilde are yet?"

She shook her head and fiddled with her hat, "The wind said that all will be revealed in a few minutes."

Raphael gave her a questioning glance. "This wind reading ability of yours sounds kind of shady."

The wind struck him and he fell off the cafeteria chair. "Ouch..."

"Oh, I'm so sorry! Are you alright Raphael?" She helped pull him back on his feet. They noticed the other people having lunch in the cafeteria looking at them and Talim gave them a sheepish grin. "Ahaha... The vent system is kind of messed up today, right doctor?"

"Uhhh... Right you are Nurse Wendy. Someone should really fix that thing," Raphael lied quickly.

Just then, Kilik's pants hit the vent shafts and everyone's eyes widened at the strange sight. "Wow that is really messed up" said one of the cafeteria ladies.

* * *

><p>Fiddling, with his tie, Yoshimitsu had finally found room 423 and a nurse was already there to greet him. "Good afternoon doctor, are you ready for me to bring the patients?"<p>

"Yes, that would be a splendid thing to do. Thou should hurry and bring me my patients," said Doctor Yoshi.

The nurse gave him a quizzical glance and went to fetch Ivy and Setsuka. He had been waiting for about ten minutes when the door opened and Ivy and Setsuka came in. "Ivy! Setsuka! How splendid it is to see thy faces again!" exclaimed Yoshimitsu as he stood up to greet them.

Setsuka eyes narrowed at him. "That Japanese sword you're holding... it reminds me of Mitsurugi's sword."

Yoshimitsu glanced down to look at the sword he hid behind his doctor's coat. "Eh?"

Ivy glared at Yoshimitsu and said, "That mask he's wearing... it reminds me of Cervantes mask from his Soul Calibur 4 alternate outfit."

Yoshimitsu touched his mask and said, "Beg your pardon?"

Ivy and Setsuka let out a battle cry and charged toward their teammate that they do not recognize and Yoshimitsu let out a small, "You've got to be kidding me... Namu namu!"

* * *

><p>Darkwings13: If you read Cassandra and Sophitia's profile, they only say that they lost weight so no one really knows their true weight. The PJ thing with Zasalamel was totally random but my sibling was watching that movie so it just popped into my head. I'll try to upload the next chapter in a few days or so. It's tough juggling two stories but I enjoy switching from action to humor. So, will Kilik leave the room without his pants? Will Nightmare wake up? Will Talim and Raphael be able to find Hilde and Siegfried? Will Team Draw find Bangoo? Will this madness stop? I'm going to answer that last question with a no. Keep your eyes open for the next chapter, bye bye.<p> 


	11. Escape

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" screamed Yun-Seong, Seong-Mina, Hwang, Xianghua and Taki as they held onto each other in the log ride. Lizardman had closed his eyes and was trying his best not to throw up as they continued their wild journey on the Waterfall Ride, that was built on the Watermill Village Stage. They were spiraling up and down, right and left at a great velocity and it was easy to say that this was one extreme water ride since they felt as if they were going to fly out of their log every second.

Our little group screamed even louder as they entered a dark tunnel where they can see nothing and hear nothing besides the water rushing by on the side of their hollowed log that they were sitting in. "For the love of Maxi's hair, please stop Bangoo!" Seong-Mina pleaded as a bit of water hit her in the face and soaked her outfit.

Up ahead, Bangoo merely turned around in his log and stuck his tongue out at them. "You can't make me!"

"You little brat! I'm going to teach you a lesson in respecting your elders!" Taki whipped out her ninja stars but since they were rushing through the dark wet tunnel, she couldn't really see anything so all the stars whooshed by Bangoo or got lodged in his log.

"You'll have to do better than that old lady!" Bangoo laughed as he used his arms to paddle away even faster.

"How dare- gasp- you! I'm gonna –gasp!" spluttered Taki as water kept hitting her in the face.

A bright light caused everyone to shut their eyes for a moment and when they opened their eyes, Xianghua, Hwang, Yun-Seong, Seong-Mina and Taki screamed even louder. They were heading toward the waterfall and they watched with wide eyes as Bangoo let out a loud "Yeah!" and him and his log dropped out of sight.

"Why doesn't this thing have seat belts?" Hwang shrieked as they came closer to the thunderous waterfall.

"Because Raphael was too cheap for buy them! That's why we had to sign those stupid papers that said we won't sue him if we die!" retorted Yun-Seong.

Seong-Mina and Taki was gripping the sides of the log so hard, that their knuckles turned white. Xianghua braced herself against the log with both feet and shouted, "If we make it out of here alive, I'm going to throttle him! And I'm definitely not kidding this time!" It looks like her hatred for Raphael had just doubled.

Lizardman finally opened his eyes and when he saw where they were headed, he fainted. Finally, the log (without the seat belts) reached the dreaded moment and tumbled downward a thousand feet below. "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" But no one could really hear their screams over the roar of the waters.

* * *

><p>"Wow… those have got to be worse than my father's pajamas," Amy mumbled as she, Cassandra, and Sophitia stood in front of Zasalamel's opened bedroom. The man was peacefully snoring away and everyone else in the house was absent for some reason. They had managed to sneak by Voldo who was making lunch in the kitchen and Amy had quickly threw a sticky spy camera on top of the ceiling near the stoves while Voldo was looking for some ingredients in the cabinets.<p>

Cassandra looked at Amy and asked, "What kind of pajamas does Raphael wear?"

"You don't want or need to know that." Amy hoisted up her bag of spying devices and took a mini spying camera out. "Come on; let's stick this in his room somewhere."

Sophitia pondered about it for a second before saying, "But isn't the bedroom a little too much. That is his one place for privacy. Besides, we don't really want to spy on him changing…."

The three thought about it and they grimaced. Amy shook her head to try and clear away the nasty image. "You've got a point. Fine, let's hit their living room."

The three sneaked downstairs and began bugging the living room. Sophitia placed a hearing device under the red sofa while Cassandra and Amy bugged Xianghua's painting that Voldo had bought for her as a thank you present. Suddenly, they heard someone coming and the three scrambled for a place to hide. Cassandra jumped behind the seventy inch flat screen T.V and all their Blue-Ray players, DVDs and other machines blocked her from sight. Sophitia jumped behind the couch and tried to keep silent while Amy used her sticky spy boots and gloves to climb up the ceiling and peered down on what was happening.

"Shhss( that's strange, I thought I felt someone in here)."

And Voldo walked in with a peanut butter sandwich in his hand. For some strange reason, even though he was known as the feared guardian who protected his master's tomb for god knows how long, he didn't notice the three intruders. But then again, this wasn't his master's tomb so maybe his senses just couldn't really bring themselves to bother. Anyway, he sat down on the couch and turned on the T.V to watch some soap operas.

Next thing that happened, Cervantes walked in with a bag of cotton candy and a corn dog that he had bought at a food stall in Soul Land a few minutes ago. "Oh, hey Voldo, is there anymore sandwiches left?"

Voldo nodded and pointed in the direction of the kitchen. The immortal pirate walked away and Voldo resumed watching his soap opera. That only lasted for about five minutes and Cervantes returned. He gave one look at the T.V and he changed it to Scurvy Shores. "Ahh, much better!"

Voldo hissed in annoyance and grabbed the remote controller back to change the channels. Cervantes wouldn't let go and the two started fighting over the thing.

* * *

><p>Sitting in the waiting room, Mitsurugi was holding on to a slip of paper that said that he was number 824. He looked at the machine that was displaying numbers and it read 612. "Maybe I don't really need to get my foot X-rayed…" he thought. Oh well, it wasn't like he had anything to do anyway. Sitting here would probably be better than decorating their headquarters and moving in their new furniture. A little old lady ran over his injured foot with her wheelchair and Mitsurugi eyes welled up with tears again. But as a manly samurai, his pride and honor would not let him shed a single tear so he merely pinched himself and continued waiting. "Number 613?" said one of the nurses.<p>

The old lady with the wheelchair raised her slip of paper in the air and rolled over Mitsurugi's foot again. "Ouch…." He mumbled as he struggled even harder to hold in the tears. At least that was one number down, just 211 more patients to go before it was his turn.

* * *

><p>After swallowing her tenth pill in the last five hours, Talim was starting to feel kind of weird. "Raphael… do these pills of yours have any side effects?"<p>

Raphael raised an eyebrow and stopped stabbing his carrot. "Why do you ask?"

"Ahaha… it's nothing. Never mind." Talim turned away and started humming to herself to distract herself from her mild stomach pain.

Raphael had gone back to picking at his vegetables when she said, "Raphael. I think we should sneak into the cafeteria's kitchen. I have a strange feeling Hilde and Siegfried are in there."

"Did the wind tell you this?"

She nodded and quickly got out of her chair and he followed suit. "Wait Raphael. How are we going to sneak in without getting caught by the cafeteria ladies?"

He thought about it for a moment and then he picked up his tray of uneaten vegetables. "FOOD FIGHT!" he screamed as he chucked the thing at a pair of nurses.

The two women screamed as they tried to get the food out of their hair and off their outfits. In anger, they chucked their salads and spaghetti at him. Raphael dodged and it hit the person behind him and everything just went wild after that. Crawling low on the ground to avoid the flying food, Raphael and Talim crawled out of there and into the kitchens. Making sure that no one in there could see them, they tiptoe around and Talim came to a complete halt near the giant freezer. "That's weird; the wind says they're right in front of me…"

Raphael knocked on the giant freezer door and to his surprise, someone answered him. "Is somebody out there?"

"Umm, that depends, who's asking?" Raphael replied hesitantly.

"RAPHAEL! I RECOGNIZE YOUR VOICE! IT'S ME! HILDE! SIEGFRIED IS IN HERE AS WELL! HURRY UP AND GET US OUT OF HERE!"

Talim and Raphael looked at each other with wide eyes and quickly opened the freezer's door. Their jaws dropped open at the sight inside. Siegfried was frozen solid and Hilde looked very… blue. "Do you think he'll survive that?" Talim whispered to Raphael.

"Let's hope so. I'm sure Algol will be able to do something," said Raphael. But how in the world were they going to drag an ice sculptured Siegfried out of the hospital without getting caught?

Talim ran away to fetch a cart. Pushing the food off it, she hurried over to Hilde and helper her lift the crystal knight on to the cart. Raphael had fetched some warm soup and he hastily handed it over to Hilde who looked much better after she gulped down the thing. Wiping her mouth, she faced them and said, "That freezer experience has cured me from the effects of that black hole. I am now one hundred percent ready to repay you in any way possible. For the glory of the Krones, what do you want me to do?"

"That freezer cured her?" Raphael thought to himself doubtfully. Turning back to the subject at hand Raphael quickly explained about their plans to escape the hospital and rendezvous with Algol at Raphael's castle.

Hilde listened quietly and nodded. "Ok, I have a plan that just might work if we play our cards right." A dangerous gleam sparkled in her eyes and Raphael gulped and wondered if she was truly cured.

Two minutes later…

"That's your big plan!" cried Raphael as he; Talim and Hilde shoved the cart forward with all their might. They slammed through the kitchen doors and back into the cafeteria where the food fight was still going on and a carrot hit him in the face. "Ahh!"

"Keep on pushing soldiers!" shouted Hilde as they continued barreling people out of the way with their cart that had the frozen Siegfried on it.

"Someone! Stop them! They're the crazy people that escaped from their rooms!" shouted one of the doctors whom they've ambushed. He was standing there in his boxers because Yoshimitsu had stolen his clothes. A random army of doctors and nurses showed up and aimed their tranquilizer guns at their butts.

Talim gasped. "Is that even legal?"

The guns fired and Talim screamed. Finally, her powers of the wind activated at the perfect moment and it sent all of the tranquilizers darts flying back towards their pursuers. "I'm so sorry!"cried Talim as she looked back at the fallen doctors and nurses.

Hilde gave her a quick pat on the back. "Good job back there soldier! You've earned yourself great honor in my eyes."

Talim's eyes sparkled with pride and Raphael muttered something that sounded like "how naïve". The wind blasted a carrot cake that was flying through the air onto his head. "Talim!"

"I'm sorry!"

And he gave her another pill as they ran away with the frozen Siegfried.

* * *

><p>"I just had a great idea Nighty! This hospital thing doesn't seem to be working for you at all. I'm going to bring you to Zassy and get him to cure you instead," giggled Tira.<p>

Her gloomy side took over and looked at Nightmare. "If he doesn't cure you, I'll kill him." She grabbed his bed and began wheeling him out of there. As Tira stepped out with the unconscious Nightmare, a doctor gasped and said, "What are you doing?"

Tira whistled and her ravens quickly flapped through a hospital window and attacked the poor doctor. "Humph, that was annoying." And she continued wheeling Nightmare down the hallway, leaving a trail of raven feathers behind.

* * *

><p>"Namu namu namu namu…."murmured Yoshimitsu who was sitting in a meditating position on the psychiatrist couch.<p>

"Namu namu…" repeated Ivy and Setsuka who was also meditating with him.

Yoshimitsu opened his eyes and said, "Ivy, Setsuka, have thou finally calm down a bit?"

Ivy opened her eyes and nodded. "After an hour of meditation, I feel much better. But I'm still not going to tell you what I saw in that black hole."

Setsuka got up and did a quick stretch. "You know, you're a pretty good psychiatrist compared to our last one. I feel like my sanity is coming back to me."

"Good. Because it would be a good idea of we escapeth from this hospital before we're captured again!" And the three rushed out of the room. To their good fortune, no one bothered them because they thought Yoshimitsu was a doctor so everything went well until they reached the elevator. Technically speaking, they were inside the elevator along with a pregnant woman when suddenly, the thing stopped working. "I can't believe this!" cried Yoshimitsu as he started pressing the floor buttons like crazy.

"Ahh… My stomach. It hurts…" mumbled the pregnant lady as she slid to the floor and began holding on to her tummy where there was a beautiful life waking up inside. And probably wanting to get out.

"Please tell me it's a stomachache," Yoshitmitsu prayed quietly.

Setsuka and Ivy ran over to the woman and helped her lean against the elevator wall. Ivy brushed away the brown hair on the woman's forhead and put her hand on there. "She's not running a fever and she doesn't seem sick."

Setsuka placed a hand on the woman's tummy and shook her head. She looked at Yoshimitsu and Ivy and said the dreaded answer. "I think she's going into labour…"

At the sound of that, Yoshimitsu began pounding on the elevator doors frantically. "SOMEBODY! ANYBODY! OPEN UP THIS BLASTED DOOR!"

* * *

><p>"I can't believe you managed to fit in here in the first place," said Maxi as he crawled behind Kilik. Once again, they were crawling through the air vents since Kilik had no other option because he wasn't wearing any pants. Maxi didn't want anyone to see his hair either so he agreed to this plan. But he didn't want to be faced with his friend butt either.<p>

Kilik grumbled something as they continued crawling around. "Hmm, that's strange. Can you see that?" Kilik pointed to an object up ahead where abit of light was shining through.

"Kilik, the only thing I can see is your 'I love Soul Calibur' boxer."

But Kilik had already crawled up ahead and Maxi quickly followed suit. "It's my pants!" cried Kilik happily. As he retrieved his pants, he glanced down at the cafeteria. Food was splattered everywhere and some of the janitors and other cleaners were cleaning up the mess. "Woah. I wonder what happened."

"I hope the doctors catch those crazy people soon. They've only been loose for about an hour and look at the mayhem they've caused!" said one of the janitors.

"Not to mention they tranquilized about twenty doctors and nurses."

"I know right. Make sure you don't head down that way, that's where they were going," and one of the janitors pointed in the direction of Talim, Hilde and Raphael's escape.

Kilik turned his head and said, "Maxi, let's head in the direction where Raphael disappeared too. Once I put on my pants, we'll crawl over there immediately."

Speaking up from behind, Maxi said, "But how are you going to wear them in this cramped vent?"

"..."

"Faster Maxi! Crawl faster before someone turns on the vents again. And when I get out of here, I can finally put on my pants again."

"I'm crawling as fast as I can here! Will you be alittle patient! You do realize that you broke the world record for being the fastest man alive right?"

* * *

><p>"AHHHHHHH!" screamed Yun-Seong as he spun the steering wheel to try and avoid another plastic cannon ball from hitting his face.<p>

Bangoo howled like a wild animal and fired some more plastic cannonballs at him. Seong-Mina accelerated her little bumper boat and slammed into Bangoo. "Hah! Take that!"

They were currently on the Pirate Raid stage where the amusement this time was Bumper Boats. But it was different from bumper cars by two ways. You're on water and you can shoot people with plastic cannonballs or squirt them with jets of water. The stage was pretty realistic with the lightning and rain but all Yun-Seong cared about was not falling out or getting struck by thunder. On the other side, Taki also speeded up and she fired a jet of water at Bangoo. But the kid dodged and it hit Hwang who was coming up from behind him in his boat. "OWW!"

Bangoo seized his chance to slam his boat against Hwang and the guy fell out. Without wearing any lifejackets, Hwang began to sink like a rock. "WHY-gasp-DIDN'T THEY –splutter-GIVE US ANY LIFEJACKETS!"

Lizardman pulled his boat over and rescued Hwang. Xianghua also pulled up and said, "Because once again, Raphael was too cheap to buy safety equipment!"

"Hishhs? (how come there aren't any lifeguards?)" asked Lizardman.

No one could understand and no one had the time to answer because they were heading right toward a whirlpool. "I don't remember a whirlpool on this stage in the game!" screamed Taki.

"Maybe Raphael added it for dramatic exits?" Seong-Mina said hopefully.

They all watched as Bangoo let out another whooping "Yeah!" before him and his boat disappeared into that whirlpool. Rock must've trained his son pretty hard because that kid had nerves of steel! Anyway, our group let out another terrifying "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" and they disappeared into the whirlpool.

From a distance, a giant tidal wave swept over a bunch of people who were screaming in fear. The fact that no one died at Soul Land yet was almost a miracle.

* * *

><p>"Give it to me! Or I'll eat your soul!" shouted Cervantes as he struggled to pull the T.V remote away from Voldo.<p>

Voldo finally had enough and he kicked the dreaded immortal pirate in the… spot. Cervantes howled and let go. The remote controlled flew through the air and it hit Amy, (who was still attached to the ceiling using her spy boots and gloves), on the head. Voldo looked up and hissed in shock. "Hsshsish! (Intruders!)"

"Darn it…" Amy mumbled. "Cassandra! Sophitia! We're getting out of here pronto!" And Amy began crawling away and over Voldo's head.

"Shsh! (Not on my watch you don't!)" And Voldo began scrambling up the walls using his awesome skills that he developed to guard the treasures in his master tomb. The two looked like spiders or something while they were chasing each other on the ceiling.

Amy looked behind her and her eyes narrowed in annoyance at Voldo who was climbing right after her. Meanwhile, Cassandra had pushed the exspensive seventy inch T.V forward and with a loud crash, she jumped out of there. Sophitia had leapt out from behind the couch but then her feet got tangled in some curtains from the window behind the couch and she fell flat on her face. Cervantes quickly whipped out his sword and charged toward her. Panicking, Cassandra grabbed the first thing she saw and threw it at Cervantes. His bag of cotton candy that he had left on the side table and a very nice looking lamp. The candy just bounced off him but the lamp caused a big lump to swell up on his head. "Thanks Cassandra!" And Sophitia ran over to her sister and they fired up their jet packs to fly out a window.

But Cervantes was absolutely furious and the pounding headache he was feeling was definitely not helping. "Take this!" He began firing his pistols at them and the bullets began making about a hundred holes in the ceiling and the living room now smelled like gunpowder. Zasalamel must've been a pretty heavy sleeper because he continued snoring away upstairs in his bed.

Cassandra and Sophitia screamed as they zoomed around in the air on their jetpacks. Cassandra stopped for a moment and shouted, "Can't you see you're destroying the house!"

Cervantes merely aimed his gun at her and fired. Cassandra ducked and it blasted three big holes through Xianghua's painting. So now, Kilik's head is missing in the painting, Maxi looks like he has an afro since there's a dark circle on top of his head and Xianghua looked like she was shot through the stomach in the painting. "Stop struggling!" shouted Cervantes.

"Persistent, aren't you," said Amy as Voldo continued crawling after her.

Voldo hissed in reply and continued coming after her. Amy quickly whipped out her spy glass that had heat vision and with a flick of the switch; she glared at Voldo and heat rays shot out. Voldo had to drop to the ground to avoid being burned and Amy quickly burned a circle around him. The floor gave away and Voldo dropped down away from sight into the treehouse secret basement.

Turning toward the sound of the gunshots, she quickly looked at Cervantes butt and his pant's caught on fire. "OWWW! Water! I need water!" cried the immortal pirate. Even though it wasn't going to kill him, it was pretty painful.

"Sophitia! Catch me!" The Greek mother flew towards her and Amy dropped down from the ceiling into her arms. Amy looked at one of the window and melted it with her heat vision and the three quickly escaped out of there.

Meanwhile, Cervantes had quickly ran to the bathroom to put out his flaming butt and Voldo was trying to climb out of the hole. When the rest of their teammates saw the living room, they were probably going to have a heart attack. Especially Xianghua, because her painting was could no longer be called a work or art; more like a work of disaster.

* * *

><p>"I can't believe the stupid elevator is broken," complained Mitsurugi as he continued limping down the stairs. After the doctor X-rayed his foot, they gave him some painkillers and told him to soak his foot in ice water and everything should be fine. After twenty minutes, he finally exited into one of the hospital's hallway. He leaned against the wall to catch his breath but then Tira walked past and the bed that Nightmare was on rolled over his foot. "OWW! Will you people stop rolling on my foot!"<p>

Tira turned her head and gave him a surprised look. "Oh it's just you. How's your foot?"

"You just rolled over it," muttered the samurai.

"Did you say something?" Tira looked at him dangerously while cracking her knuckles.

Mitsurugi shook his head since he was too tired to start a fight. "What are you doing with Nightmare anyway? You're lucky you haven't been caught yet. I heard that apparently, most of the doctors and nurses are unconscious from some tranquilizer incident."

Tira pursed her lips said, "My jolly side thinks that this hospital thing doesn't seem to be working out for Nightmare here. I'm taking him back to our headquarter and getting Zasalamel to heal him instead."

Mitsurugi shrugged and began limping away. "I just want to go back and soak my foot in some ice water. Let's get going."

* * *

><p>"Just take some deep breaths… Good. Now push!" shouted Ivy as she and Setsuka helped the woman to deliver the baby.<p>

Yoshimitsu was huddling behind Setsuka's umbrella and trying not to see or hear anything. "Has the baby cometh yet?"

"Aughh!" screamed the soon to be mother.

"I guess I'll take that as a no." Yoshimitsu bit his lips and said, "Ivy, are thou having problems with this… procedure?"

Ivy groaned and rubbed her tired neck. "I think the baby's coming out feet first. This is going to take awhile."

Setsuka gasped and said, "She's going to bite her tongue from all the pain! Someone! Give me a stick or a knife for her to bite instead!" Yoshimitsu withdrew the hidden blade inside the umbrella and handed it to her but in her haste, Setsuka didn't look at what she grabbing so she grabbed his hand instead and popped it into the woman's hand. The poor thing bit down hard and Yoshimitsu screamed because it wasn't his wooden hand.

All of their screaming had finally attracted someone's attention. Tira stopped wheeling Nightmare away and gave the elevators a curious glance. "That's strange. I thought I heard something."

"PUSHHH!"

Mitsurugi arched his eyebrows. "Is someone in there?"

"Praise the heavens! Please! Thou must find a way to open these blasted doors! Someone's having a – OUCH!" The woman bit down on Yoshimitsu's hand again. "Baby! Someone's having a baby!"

Tira shifted into her jolly side. "Oohhh. A baby? Neat! Can me and my boyfriend be its godparents!" Maybe Nightmare would agree to marry her if they have a child now. And she could raise it to be the perfect assassin just like her. Tira began daydreaming about the baby's future.

"WILL THOU JUST HURRY IT UP! Thou can be its ancestors for all I careth!"

"Ok! I'm coming!" Tira replied. "Come on Mitsu! Follow my lead!" Lifting Nightmare up, she and Mitsurugi used him a battering ram. Every time his head connected with the door, he probably lost about a thousand brain cells. It would be a miracle if Zasalamel could restore him back to normal by this rate.

Inside the elevator, Yoshimitsu felt like he was going to bite off his tongue since his nerves were screaming from the pain in his hand that was being bitten. "Why couldn't she grabeth my wooden arm!" he thought to himself.

"It's coming! You're almost there! Keep pushing!" Setsuka shouted excitedly.

With a momentous effort, the woman finally delivered a beautiful baby boy. Ivy began tearing up at the beautiful sight and she gave Setsuka a high five. Yoshimitsu sighed in relief and was about to withdraw his hand but then the woman bit down on it again. "AHH! What now!"

Ivy and Setskua mumbled, "I think she's going to be having twins…"

"Seriously!"

Luckily for Yoshimitsu, the pain continued for another ten minute before a second baby, a girl, popped into the world. Ivy and Setsuka were holding the baby and cooing to it while the mother rested for a bit. At the same time, the elevator doors finally broke open and Nightmare is probably going to suffer some serious brain damage from being used as a battering ram. A shock silence followed. Setsuka's eyes flashed as she looked at her archenemy. "Mitsurugi!"

"Setsuka?"

Yoshimitsu glared at Tira. "My clan members cry out for vengeance!"

"Hey! What are you people doing!" shouted a doctor who had finally discovered them.

Tira narrowed her eyes. Getting Nighty out of here was considered first priority so she merely threw Nightmare back on the bed and pushed it forward with all her might with Mitsurugi limping behind her. The samurai turned back to Setsuka and said, "Sorry, but I'm not in the mood for a fight today. My foot is more important to me than your vengeance right now."

"Get back here you coward!" shouted Setsuka. She placed the baby in the woman's arm and chased after them with Yoshimitsu following closely behind her. Ivy gave the baby back and chased after them as well. The doctor couldn't chase after them because he had to check up on the two newborn and the new mother.

* * *

><p>"I can't run anymore," Talim whimpered as she slowed to a stop.<p>

Hilde gave her a worried glance and said, "What's wrong soldier? Are you injured?"

"My stomach hurts…"

Raphael slowly withdrew the pill bottle and gulped nervously. He had forgotten about the overdose limit. "Please let it be a stomachache…" he prayed.

Before he could wipe the guilty look off his face, Hilde noticed it. Speaking in a dry voice, she said, "Raphael… Don't tell me that's its your fault."

He looked away and pretended not to hear her. Hilde grabbed his cape and turned him back and she leaned in close toward his face. "Have you no honor? You should be struck down by lightning for this!"

Lightning didn't strike him, but Maxi and Kilik fell down from the vent shaft above them and squashed Raphael. Hilde screamed and turned away from the pantless Kilik. "Have you no shame! Put on some pants for heaven sake!"

"Get your butts off my back!" shouted Raphael as he struggled to get the two off him.

Kilik quickly leaped off and began putting on his pants while Maxi got off the angry vampire. He noticed Talim who was bent over from the pain and he ran over to her. "Talim? What's wrong?" He glanced over at the frozen Siegfried and the blood drained out of his face. "What happened to him! How is he going to fix my hair if he's frozen!"

Hilde answered Maxi questions with a brief explanation. "It's all Raphael's fault for the state Talim's in. I'm assuming it has something to do with that pill bottle in his hand." She patted the crystal Siegfried and said, "And here, we have my boyfriend who wanted to find some more steaks to eat so we sneaked into the cafeteria's freezer and we sorted got locked in. I think he'll thaw out sooner or later though. I hope. And why are you wearing a hat?"

Maxi turned away from and pretended not to hear that last question. Kilik snatched the bottle from Raphael's hand and looked at him curiously. "You have been giving her a lot of these pills. What's going to happen to her?"

"As if I would know, these are the first pills ever created to hold back her supernatural wind power," replied Raphael.

Kilik thought about it carefully before saying, "If these things are supposed to be holding back her uncontrollable power, then if you think about it, it's like you're holding back a lot of water with a temporary dam…" Raphael and Kilik's eyes widened in horror but Hilde and Maxi didn't get it.

"We don't get it."

Raphael tried to stammer out the shocking answer. "Using Kilik's metaphor, her powers are going to hit us with ten times the force than usual…"

Kilik picked up Talim in his arms and said, "I'm the fastest runner here. I'll bring her to Algol before we get hit with a tornado." And he quickly began running toward the exit.

"Push you morons! Push for your honor!" screamed Hilde as she, Maxi, and Raphael began shoving the food cart with the heavy Siegfried on it after Kilik.

"Come back here Mitsurugi!"

Raphael, Kilik, Hilde, and Maxi turned their heads to see Tira pushing a bed with Nightmare on it and Mitsurugi limping closely behind her. Yoshimitsu, Setsuka and Ivy were running closely behind them and with a battle cry, Setsuka launched herself forward and tackled the samurai. This led to a disastrous chain of events. They fell forward and knocked Tira to the ground. She let go of Nightmare's bed which came rolling right towards Raphael, Maxi, and Hilde who couldn't get away fast enough because of the frozen knight. They fell onto the bed and just when Nightmare was starting to wake up, his enemy in ice block form hit him on the head and knocked him out again. "Curse you Siegfried," mumbled Nightmare as he lost consciousness.

"Extend!"Ivy whipped her Valentine forward to try and slow down the bed with her teammates and Nightmare on it. But then the bed rolled over a bump on the floor and jerked to the side so her whip lashed onto Kilik instead.

He tripped and Talim flew backward into the air and onto the already very crowded bed. Her hand accidently slap Maxi's hat off his head so everyone looked at his afro with great attention. As expected, Raphael, Hilde and the small group consisting of Mitsurugi, Tira, Setsuka, Ivy and Yoshimitsu began laughing their heads off. "Woah! That is even worse than Yun-Seong's new haircut!" Mitsurugi roared with laughter as he continued limping after the bed.

Before more people could join in with the insults, Kilik shouted "Watch where you're going!" The bed was rolling toward him but he leapt into the air and landed gracefully on to the very crowded bed.

Tira whistled for her ravens and about a hundred birds grabbed onto the bed. One of the birds decided to nest in Maxi's gigantic afro though. But anyway, the birds slowed the thing down alittle and Tira grabbed it again. Beside her, Ivy grabbed onto the bed as well. Gloomy side took over and Tira snarled at the alchemist. "Get your hands off woman! Or I'll cut them off!"

"Humph, you wouldn't stand two seconds against me!" retorted Ivy. "Yoshmitsu! Setsuka! I could use alittle help here! The only one who isn't heavy on this bed is probably Talim!"

Raphael gave her a shock expression as the bed continues rolling forward. "How dare you! Are you calling me fat?"

No one bothered answering him because everyone that was not on the bed was struggling to stop the bed from moving while those who were on the bed was trying not to fall off. As they rolled out of the hospital into the parking lot, a lot of people stared at the strange sight. And then Talim moaned and said, "I think I'm gonna die…"

Hilde, Maxi and Kilik hugged her and said, "Don't worry, Algol will fix everything. Just hold on soldier." Hilde glared at Raphael. "Aren't you going to say something?"

Before Raphael could open his mouth, lightning roared and the sky turned dark. A giant tornado came down and ripped the roofs off the cars around them. Within two seconds, they were soaring through the air. "AHHH!" everybody screamed as they spun around in the crazy vortex and Tira was trying to rescue her ravens that were cawing in fear as the wind threw the birds around.

Everyone was holding onto the bed as tight as they can and trying to avoid getting hit by random objects. But the wind must've really hated Raphael because most of the debris that the tornado picked up kept hitting him. An empty pop bottle, a rock, a shoe, the roof of a car, the door of a car, the car itself, etc. "Oww! Ouch! Ahh! Ow! Ow ow ow! He's going to need a lot of bandages after this….

* * *

><p>Back at Talim's village, her grandmother was reading the wind and she gasped. One of the villagers was bringing her some lemonade when suddenly; Talim's grandmother grabbed him and said, "I've just received the strangest message from the wind!"<p>

"What is it oh great elder?"

"Some crazy vampire has been giving my granddaughter some strange pills and now her powers are way out of control! She's having terrible stomach pains and there's a tornado involved in this catastrophe!" She paused for a moment to add, "The only good thing is that crazy vampire getting beat up by the wind."

The man thought about it and said, "I think that would be Raphael Sorel, the guy your esteemed granddaughter is helping because there's some kind of fight going on between the cast of the Soul Calibur crew and Talim's on his side." He gave her the newspaper about the fight between Raphael and Zasalamel and she quickly scanned it.

When she finished, Talim's grandmother sighed and told him to fetch Talim's bird, Alun. The man hurried away while she went to write a very angry and threatening letter.

* * *

><p>One hour of great destruction later….<p>

The tornado travelled toward Soul Land and all the customers screamed and began running away. Algol peered out of one of Raphael's castle window and he groaned. "They sure know how to make an escape."

Amy and Kami ran up beside him and looked out as well. "What has my father done this time?" Amy wondered.

A very wet Yun-Seong, Hwang, Seong-Mina, Xianghua, Taki and Lizardman was seen heading toward their headquarter with a tied up Bangoo slung over Lizardman's shoulders. After much hardship, they had finally captured Rock's son. Seong-Mina and Taki was almost ready to give the kid a hard spanking but they didn't want to get sent to jail for child abuse. And Rock would probably kill them while they were in jail with him for hurting his child. As they stomped their way home, Xianghua glanced up and paled. A giant tornado came towards them and they caught a quick glance of Setsuka strangling Mitsurugi. "We should run…" whispered Xianghua.

"I agree with you on that," Hwang replied quietly.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! They screamed as they tried to outrun the whirling cyclone but of course, that was impossible and they were swept heavenward.

Passing by Team's Draw headquarter, the tornado spat Team Draw's members out and continued on its way. Tira was holding onto her ravens and crying while Mitsurugi was taking deep breaths to get some air back into his lungs. Seong-Mina and Yun-Seong were lying against each other, clearly knocked out while Hwang was trying to wake up his friends. Taki and Lizardman were holding tightly onto Bangoo's rope since they kid was trying to escape and Xianghua had ran into their headquater to look for Zasalamel. But everyone froze when they heard her scream. "WHO IN THE WORLD RUINED MY PAINTING?" It looks like Cervantes is going to be facing a bigger fire problem than the one on his butt soon.

As they neared Raphael's castle, Algol was standing out on the balcony heroically and Amy was standing beside him with Soul Calibur in her hand. Using their awesome powers, they stopped the tornado and everyone began to float down gently due to the power of Soul Calibur that Amy was using. Amy winced at her father's injuries. "Father? What happened to you?"

Floating down, he merely said, "I don't think the wind likes me very much." And he fainted.

* * *

><p>Darkwings13: When Cervantes changed the channel to Scurvy Shores, that was a reference to Jersey Shores. I feel kind of bad for turning Nightmare into a battering ram. Anyway,I'm going to dedicate this to doctors and nurses all around the world because in my opinion, they're like the angels of the earth. This concludes the hospital arc, it's the end of their adventures in there. This it like the longest chapter I've ever written, I hope you guys like it. I shall be writing about the contests after Rock's little moment in court. You guys can be the jury and decide whether he's guilty or not for killing the lion.<p> 


	12. Courtroom Chaos

"May you rest in peace… uhh, what's the bird's name?" asked Zasalamel who was performing the funeral rites for Tira's birds. They were all standing in a graveyard and burying her birds that died in the tornado incident. It has been officially three days since that disaster and the only reason why Zasalamel agreed to perform the funeral rites was because Tira wouldn't bury her birds without the rites. The smell of rotting ravens was starting to drive him insane so he finally agreed.

Tira let out a loud sob and blew her nose on Nightmare's nice new mourning clothes. "It was Beaky! How can you not remember Zassy!"

Zasalamel sighed and continued saying the words to the funeral rites while everyone else watched with great boredom. After this, they were going to be heading to the courtroom for Rock's trial and hopefully, he won't be sent to jail. For the past three days, things have been rather chaotic and the only good thing that really happened was that Nightmare got cured.

The rest of the time was spent on repairing the bullet holes on the ceiling in their living room, cleaning up, and replacing or repairing broken furnitures. On a side note, there was no artist on earth who could repair Xianghua's painting. Her rage was hot enough to speed up global warming by 80% and Cervantes came closer to death than he had imagined. Fearful for his life, he had handed over some of his pirates treasure so that she could buy another one and to Xianghua's luck, she found the same painting being sold on the internet and is now waiting for the thing to arrive in a few days. Bangoo was currently grounded forcibly in his room and they would only let him out when Rock comes back.

Zasalamel looked down at the eighth dead raven and asked dryly, "What's the name of this one?"

Tira let out another loud wail and Nightmare gave her a few pats on the back with his demented arm while she soaked his shirt with tears and snot. Nightmare sighed and continued comforting her because it was all thanks to her that he's back to normal (he doesn't know that she used him as a battering ram).

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, at Raphael's castle….<p>

"Talim, could you pass the salt?" Raphael asked gingerly. Everyone was sitting at the dining table and eating their breakfasts while chit chatting with each other about Rock's upcoming trial that they were going to go see later. For the past three days, things have been relatively peaceful after Algol cured everybody using the powers of Soul Calibur. Things were kind of tense between him and Talim though. After that little pill incident, she's been ignoring him. Most people would've thought that she would just smile and forgive him but apparently she didn't. There's a saying that the gentler a person is, the worse their anger would be when they actually get angry. Talim gave him a brief glance before continuing to drink her milk.

Everyone stared for a moment before Cassandra quietly handed over the salt shaker. "Here you go."

"Thanks Cassandra." As he digged in to his bacon, he began thinking that at this rate; Talim would join the other team if he doesn't figure out something. Just then, a fierce peregrine falcon flew in through one of his open window and landed in front of the priestess.

"Watch out Talim!"Maxi (with his hair restored back to normal) jumped out of his seat and attempted to pull Talim away from the dangerous bird.

But Talim laughed and shook him off her. "It's ok Maxi. This bird won't hurt me." The priestess reached out for the falcon and it obediently landed on her arm. "Hello Alun, what are you doing here?"

Everyone eyes widened and Setsuka said, "That's your bird!"

Kilik flipped his cellphone opened and quickly accessed the internet. "It says on Soul Calibur wiki that she has a bird but it doesn't say what type it is…." Kilik looked at the bird and arched an eyebrow. "I would've never guessed that it's a falcon."

Talim giggled and gave her pet a few pats on the head but then she noticed a small rolled up letter tied to its feet. "Hmm? What's this?" She took out the letter and a confused expression crossed her face.

Yoshimitsu cocked his head and put down his spoon. "Who is the letter addressed to? Thou are making me very curious."

"It's my grandmother's writing but it's addressed to Raphael…" Talim looked at the vampire in question and she grudgingly handed it over to him.

He raised an eyebrow as he held the letter in his hand. Everyone leaned in to try and peek but he shoved them back. When he was sure that they couldn't see the letter, he began reading it.

_To Raphael Sorel, _

_This is Talim's all powerful grandmother, who is also the elder of the village. I've found out about those pills you've gave to my granddaughter and I know what happened. Don't think that you can hide anything from me, I can read the wind. If anything else happens to my sweet granddaughter, I'll send a twister your way every day, every month and every year for the rest of your life. When I die, my descendants can take over. So it looks like you're now my granddaughter's permanent baby-sitter until she returns home. Best of luck to you, because you're seriously going to need it._

_From Talim's grandmother, Kalana_

_P.S. This letter will self-destruct after you've finished reading it. (Written in invisible ink)._

Raphael sighed and looked at Talim with great annoyance. "I have to baby-sit her?" And the letter exploded in his face.

* * *

><p>A few hours later at the Court Room…<p>

Taking a seat in the audience section, Team Draw sat down nervously as they awaited the outcome of Rock's trial. When Bangoo found out about what happened to his dad, he begged them to let him come, promising that he won't cause any trouble so Zasalamel had finally relented and the kid was sitting to his right and beside the aisle. Luckily for his team, they got front seats before random civilians came in to watch as well. "Bonjour, monsieur baldie."

Zasalamel ears twitch at the sound of that familiar and annoying voice and when he turned around in his seat, he suppressed the urge to summon his black hole in the middle of the courtroom. "Raphael, why are you and your teammates here?"

Raphael grinned and sauntered over to the other audience seats on the left side of the court. "How can we miss seeing you lose one of your valuable teammates? I can't wait to see the look on your face when that happens."

Before Zasalamel could say something back, the judge sat down and began hammering for silence. "Everyone, rise!"

Everyone got out of their seats for the little speech about courtroom protocol and etc. When everyone sat down, the players of the court was presented and Team Draw looked at Rock (the accused) who was being led to his seat, supposedly beside his defense lawyer who's not here.

The judge looked at Rock and said, "Sir Rock, do you have a lawyer who'll be representing your case?"

Rock gulped and looked at Zasalamel. "Where in the world is my lawyer!" he mouthed frantically.

Zasalamel glanced down at his watch and frowned. That's weird, he had ordered Cervantes to take his ship and travel to England to pick up the supposedly 'best lawyer in the world' two days ago. They should've been here by now. And then, the doors to the courtroom slammed open and Cervantes, dressed in a lawyer's outfit complete with the white wig and all, entered. "Sorry I'm late, I'm Rock's lawyer. And he scrambled to sit beside Rock in the defendant's chair."

This was really bad… Zasalamel turned around in his seat and hissed to Taki. "Taki, listen up. I need you to cause a distraction so I can speak to Cervantes for a moment. Especially the part of why he's now Rock's lawyer."

Taki smirked and nodded. "That'd be a smart thing to do. Cervantes is probably the worst lawyer in the world and he'll more likely triple Rock's punishment than help him," replied Taki as she looked around to make sure no one was looking at her. In a quick second, she launched three ninja smoke bomb to the ground and panic immediately ensued.

"Ouch! Who's stepping on my foot!" cried Maxi.

Siegfried backed off Maxi's foot and said a quick apology but then he stepped onto Cassandra's foot and knocked her backward into Dampierre. "Siegfried! Watch where you're going!" shouted Cassandra as she tried to find her seat again.

"Amy! This seems rather suspicious wouldn't you say?" whispered Raphael quietly as they were engulfed in smoke.

Amy nodded and said, "First we have Cervantes as Rock's lawyer, now we have someone setting off a random smoke bomb… Zasalamel is definitely up to something. We should seize this opportunity to make sure that Rock gets jailed father."

Raphael smiled evilly and called for Ivy who was sitting a few seats away. Walking over to him, she tilted her head and waited for him to say something. "What is it now Raphael?"

"Do you want revenge on Cervantes?"

Her lips curled upward into a smile. "Now we're talking."

Meanwhile, Zasalamel had sneaked up to Cervantes and he quickly poked him in the back. "Cervantes! What is the meaning of this? Where in the world is Rock's real lawyer that I paid for!"

Cervantes gave him an apologetic smile and began explaining. "Everything was going really well actually. The guy got onto the boat and we were sailing through some very fine weather. But then things got nasty and we were hit with a really big storm and…"

"He went overboard?" asked a horrified Zasalamel.

"Yeah. I mean, I tried to save him but then the kraken popped out of the waters it ate him!"

Zasalmel gave him a quizzical look. "The legendary squid of the sea ate him?"

"Yeah!"

Zasalamel rubbed his eyes tiredly. "Look, just try to do your best by not saying anything that'll jeopardize Rock's chances." And he hurried back to his seat as the smoke cleared up.

After a few minutes of intense hammering by the judge, things were finally back in control. "Well, now that things have finally calmed down, let us turn to our persecutor and her lawyer." Everyone turned to look and it was… Ivy. The judge cleared his throat. "You are… the persecutor?"

The real persecutor was currently tied up, gagged, blindfolded and being hidden in the girl's bathroom by Amy, Sophitia and Setsuka.

Ivy smiled and nodded. "Yes, my name is Ms. Valentine your honor."

"Umm, but why aren't you wearing your lawyer outfit Ms. Valentine?" said the judge.

Ivy was wearing her first outfit from Soul Calibur 4 and it was rather distracting. She shrugged. "Who says an intelligent woman can't be beautiful?"

It was a rather weak argument but the judge couldn't help but be weakened by her beauty (and skimpy outfit) so he merely said, "Alright, let's proceed then. The prosecutor may start first."

Ivy bowed her head and turned to look at Rock. "Sir Rock, would you please take a seat at the witness stand so that I may ask you some question?"

After swearing on the holy book that he would speak the truth, and only the truth, etc, he sat down and waited nervously for Ivy to begin. She cleared her throat and looked down at the notes she stole from the real persecutor. "Sir Rock, where were you on June 23, at 2:30 pm."

Rock answered that he was shopping with the rest of his teammates at Soul Land's furniture shop. His teammates popped out of their seats and began affirming what he said.

"Yeah, we went shopping that day!" cried Xianghua.

"Rock was beside me when I broke that expsensive oriental vase!" Mitsurugi added loudly.

The judge banged his gravel and called for silence. "Please sit down and remain quiet!"

Team Draw sat back down in their seats and Ivy continued her questioning. "Rock, were you really present at the furniture shop at 2:30? Because according to some witnesses, they've seen you at the Zoo near Soul Land."

Rock looked at Cervantes for help and the pirate mouthed 'Deny it!' So Rock shook his head and said, "I'm sure there must've been some mistakes. I was not at the zoo."

Ivy quirked an eyebrow. "Very well, let's call in the witness then."

A zoo keeper was brought in and he sat down in the witness chair as Rock got out and sat beside Cervantes again. Ivy paced slowly back and forth and addressed the zoo keeper. "Sir, have you seen" Ivy gestured to Rock, "this man at the zoo on the 23rd of June?"

The zoo keeper peered at Rock and nodded. "Yep, it's him."

Cervantes popped out of his seat and cried "Objection!"

The judge said, "To what do you object?"

Cervantes grinned and said it'll be clear when he asked the witness some questions. The judge thought about it and nodded. Ivy sat down and gave Cervantes an evil glare. Cervantes got up and began walking toward the witness but then Ivy stuck her foot out and tripped him. Nightmare jumped out of his seat and shouted, "She tripped him! Foul play!"

Tira quickly stood up and supported her boyfriend. "Yeah! I saw it too! Someone should restrain that violent woman!"

From the other side, Yoshimitsu stood up and shouted back to her. "Thou are crazy! That pirate tripped by himself!"

Sophitia added in as well. "Tira! You're so crazy that you probably imagined it!"

"SILENCE!" The judge hammered loudly and looked at them with evident irritation. "If you don't keep quiet then you'll be thrown out!"

"Yes your honor." And everyone sat back down.

Adjusting his wig as he walked toward the witness, Cervantes got ready show them what a great lawyer he could be. "Sir, you say that you saw Rock at the zoo right?"

"Yep."

"How do you know it was him?" asked Cervantes as he leaned in close to the witness.

"I recognize his figure," the zookeeper replied nervously.

Cervantes quickly backed away and clapped his hand. "Aha! Did you all hear that? He only saw the body figure of the criminal! He never saw the face!"

Rock wiped away a bead of sweat and sighed in relief. It was a good thing he wore his SC4 outfit with the rhinoceros head that day. Since it covered his face, maybe no one was able to identify him. Pushing his advantage forward, he turned back toward the witness. "So, is there anything else you can describe about the attacker? Most importantly, you can't identify his face, can you?"

The zookeeper thought about it for a second before saying, "But it was a very noticeable mask. It was a rhinoceros mask!"

Cervantes shrugged. "What was he wearing under the mask?"

"Uhh…. His face?"

Cervantes laughed. "That's the point! It doesn't matter what kind of mask it was! As long as you can't identify the face, then you can't be sure that it's Rock!"

Cassandra and Siegfried stood up and cried, "For God's sake! Rock's the only guy we know who wears a rhinoceros mask! It was his SC4 outfit and there are a million wallpapers on the internet that shows it!"

Zasalamel snapped his finger. Lizardman and Yun-Seong jumped out of their seats and launched themselves over to tackle Cassandra and Siegfried. Pandemonium ensued as the two sides began fighting and the innocent bystanders quickly ran out of there. "How dare you attack my people?" And Raphael launched himself at Zasalamel.

"Why can't your people just keep their trapholes shut?" And the two tried strangling each other.

"I don't think so." Amy smoothly tripped Bangoo who was going after her father.

"You're lucky I don't hit girls!" said Bangoo as he tried to get up.

Amy smiled. "That's good for me then." And she stomped on his hand.

Setsuka was holding on tightly to Mitsurugi's right hand while Taki was holding tightly on to his left hand and the two were pulling on hard. "I will have my revenge!" And Setsuka tugged even harder.

Taki pulled the other way and said, "I won't let you hurt my teammate!"

"You're both hurting me so will you please let go!" shouted the samurai. It felt like his arms was going to be ripped off.

Beside them, two Ling-Sheng Su students were getting ready for battle. "Do you really think you can defeat me?" Kilik readied himself into a martial arts stance.

Seong-Mina did the same thing. "Just to let you know Kilik, edgemaster said that I was a better student than you."

Kilik gasped. "Take that back!"

"Make me!"

And the two attacked each other. Xianghua and Maxi were fighting a few feet away and Xianghua said, "Maxi! If you don't get out of my way, we won't be friends anymore!"

Maxi dodged one of her fists and sighed. "Don't be like that Xianghua. Seriously, why don't you join our side? I'm sure Raphael would welcome you with open arms. And you can be with Kilik again."

"MY RESOLVE CANNOT BE SWAYED! I'M NOT CHANGING SIDES!" Xianghua tackled Maxi and pinned him to the floor.

Someone ran past them in a panicky frenzy. "AHHH! Someone, save me!" cried Talim as she ran away from Tira.

"This is revenge for my ravens!" cried the insane girl as she chased after Talim.

Talim shut her eyes and screamed, "Raphael! You're a terrible baby-sitter!"

Raphael heard the priestess scream and he quickly turned his head to see Tira getting closer and closer to Talim. "Hilde! Go rescue Talim! I don't want to have her grandmother come chasing after me with twisters!"

Hilde used her lance to launch herself to Talim's rescue and with a grunt; she thrust it toward Tira who deftly dodged it. "Stay behind me soldier! For my honor, I will protect you!" And she placed herself before Talim.

"I'm coming Hilde!" cried Siegfried as he hurried forward to join Hilde.

"I'm coming Tira!" And Nightmare did the same thing but Hwang and Yun-Seong popped into their path and the four men tumbled into a heap on the floor.

Cassandra, Dampierre and Sophitia were fighting Voldo and Lizardman but they were having a difficult time. Weaving around their feet like some kind of snake, Voldo came up behind Dampierre and wedgied him. Dampierre screamed, "You coward!"

Cassandra kicked forward but Lizardman blocked it with his shield and he double slapped her with his tail. "Cassandra! I'm coming to help you!" Sophitia jumped onto Lizardman's head and began hitting him with her shield.

"ORDER IN THE COURT! ORDER! ORDER!" screamed the judge who was banging his gravel really loudly. The gravel broke and the judge stared at it. "Oh come on! You know what! Case closed! Rock is innocent because I'm having a killer headache!"

Ivy growled and she leapt out of her seat. "You can't be serious! How are you going to explain how he carried a dead lion and gave it to the cashier as payment for a hammock?"

Cervantes stood up and smoothly answered. "Maybe he found the dead lion that the real killer dropped somewhere."

"You know what! I don't care anymore either! I just want to strangle you!" Ivy whipped her whip forward and it slapped his white wig off. Cervantes drew his swords and the two began fighting while the judge and the jury left. Reinforcements were called in and everyone in there was thrown in jail for ten hours for disrupting behaviour. Except for Rock.

* * *

><p>Darkwings13: Hope you guys enjoyed reading. I enjoyed writing this chapter even though it was kinda difficult since I was not familiar with court protocol. Anyway, it says that Talim has a bird name Alun and typically, everyone would think that it's something small and cute like a canary but I thought a powerful hunting falcon would be more interesting. And I guess Tira must really love her birds. So after this, the contests will be coming up, but knowing me, I'll somehow drag it out and make it long. Please bear with me, I love you guys who are reading this. Thanks and bye.<p> 


	13. Start of Soul Clash

At an underground stage with flashy lights on the ceiling, there were people crowding around a big smooth black stage and Algol was standing there with a microphone in his hand. Behind him was the backstage that was covered with a curtain. Cameras were flashing and a T.V crew was recording the event.

"Greetings everyone, my name is Algol and I'm your host for this hot new show, Soul Clash!" The people around him cheered (especially his son and his adopted daughter) and Algol waved to them while bright lights flashed around on the ceiling. Raphael had decided to use the contest as an event to gain some publicity for Soul Land and his own popularity and he even called the media department to broadcast this on T.V.

Algol cleared his throat. "As you've all seen in the newspaper about the battle between Raphael and Zasalamel, we're now broadcasting this live! Let's introduce the players of the game! They nickname themselves Team Draw. Which stands for Destroy Raphael's Annoying World. First off, the men of the team! We have Zasalamel, Nightmare, Rock, Mitsurugi, Lizardman, Yun-Seong, Hwang, Cervantes and Voldo!"

People cheered and some of the girls fainted as the guys appeared on the stage from behind the curtains. The song, 'I'm too sexy for my shirt started' playing and the girls screamed even louder. Yun-Seong grinned and started flexing his arms. Everyone stared at his shirtless abs and muscles and went "ooooooo".

Rock stepped forward and started pounding his chest. "Bangoo! Are you proud of me?"

From the audience, Bangoo stood up and pounded on his chest as well. "Dad! You're the best!" The two had made up and were now close again.

A little girl beside Bangoo cheered for Zasalamel. Yep, it was the same girl that had his scythe (she put it in a display case at home) and the one who insulted Raphael in the past. "Zasalamel! You're my hero! You can beat mister girly vampire! I believe in you!"

Zasalamel smiled and waved to his number one fan. Yun-Seong grabbed the microphone out of Algol's hand and he and Hwang started singing some Korean songs. Many of the girls, including my sister, fainted with a happy smile on their faces.

Algol snatched his microphone back and glared at them before turning back to the audience. "And now, let's introduced the girls of this team! Xianghua, Taki, Tira and Seong-Mina!"

The four girls walked out on stage and the song, "Hollaback Girls by Gwen Stefani' started playing. Cameras flashed like crazy and the four struck a pose. One of the men started hollering. "I'm your biggest fan Taki!" And other men started screaming as well.

"My favorite crazy girl! Tira! You're awesome!"

"Xianghua! Will you marry me instead of Kilik?"

"You're gorgeous Seong-Mina!"

Her father looked at the guy who said that and narrowed his eyes. Seong-Mina spotted her father in the audience and she waved. "Hi daddy!"

Her father grinned and waved back. The girls waved and smiled at the camera and fans before going over to stand with their team on the right side of the stage. Algol grinned and held up his microphone. "Now it's time for Raphael's team. They don't have a nickname but they have spunk! Again, the men will go first. We have Raphael, Siegfried, Kilik, Maxi and Yoshimitsu!"

The song 'Pump It by the Black Eye Peas' started playing and the men strolled out onto the stage. "I can't hear you! Louder!" cried Raphael as he pumped his fist into the air. Everyone screamed even louder and he grinned. Raphael unclasped his cape and threw it into the audience and a group of girls started fighting over the thing.

Siegfried flashed a dazzling smile and some girls/men swooned. Maxi flipped his hair and another girl quickly took a picture with her cellphone. The Manji clan was there in the audience and when they saw their leader, Yoshimitsu, they clapped loudly for him. "Thou are too kind!" And Yoshimitsu let out an emotional tear.

Clearing his throat, Algol said, "Let us meet the lovely ladies of this team now. Amy, Talim, Hilde, Setsuka, Cassandra, Sophitia and Ivy!"

The audience screamed so loudly that it was almost hard to hear the song 'California Girls by Katy Perry' play. Setsuka, Sophitia and Ivy entered first and they blew a kiss to the audience and the men nearly died from such sexiness. Rothion was there with Pyrrha and Patroklos and Sophitia jumped down from the stage to hug her family. Everyone "ahhhed" at the tender moment.

Cassandra, Hilde, Talim and Amy catwalked out and were given loud claps and whistles and the cameras flashed like crazy. Hilde's father was watching this from his T.V while sitting in his king-size bed and he shed a tear at how grown-up his daughter looked. Raphael clapped really hard for his wonderful daughter as well. "That's my girl!" he exclaimed proudly.

A slight breeze flew past and Talim immediately spotted her own family who were in the audience. "Mom! Dad! Grandma! You guys came!"

"Of course darling!" said her mother who was clapping for her sweet little girl.

"What kind of father would I be if I didn't come!" laughed Talim's father.

Her grandma grinned and gave her the thumbs up while Alun was perched on her shoulders. Algol waited for Raphael's team to take their place on the left side of the stage before introducing the judges. "Our judges are… Angol Fear, Edgemaster, and Dampierre (when Zasalamel found out he betrayed them, he threatened Dampierre so now the guy is neutral.)! However, some events will not require judges so they will not be present at all times. Nonetheless, let's give them a warm welcome!"

The crowd clapped for them and the three judges smiled and nodded. Except for Angol Fear, she doesn't like to smile. When the cheering had died down alittle, Algol walked over to the middle of the stage and snapped his finger. A large hat dropped from the ceiling and Algol snatched it out of the air. "As you all know, the team that wins two out of three trials will obtain Soul Calibur and do whatever they want with it. The trials will be drawn randomly out of a hat so, who'll go first?"

Raphael and Zasalamel glared at each other from across the stage. Algol looked at the two and took out a coin. "Heads or tail?"

Amy crossed her arms and spoke up. "That's not fair. Zasalamel can predict the future so he would win for sure."

Algol whipped out some straws. "How about this?"

Ivy sighed. "That's practically the same thing."

"Rock, paper ,scissors?" suggested Yun-Seong.

Talim shook her head. "Yun-Seong, Zasalamel can cheat at that as well."

Algol rolled his eyes and said, "Fine, why don't we have Siegfried and Nightmare do this instead?"

Everyone thought about it and they nodded. Siegfried picked heads while Nightmare picked tails. Algol flicked the coin upward into the air but then Raphael nudged Talim and she used her wind power to manipulate its spin. Zasalamel growled and nudged Tira. Tira let out a loud cackle and whistled for her raven. The bird flocked over and grabbed the coin and flapped its way back to her mistress. "Not on my watch," said Hilde as she threw her lance into the air and the bird dropped the coin to dodge the deadly weapon.

Taki threw a smoke bomb at the ground and jumped into the air to grab it. But then Kilik stuck his staff into the ground, leaped onto it and balanced on the thing with one foot. The crowd took a moment to admire his acrobatics before clapping. Edgemaster nodded with approval at Kilik's prowess. "I'll show you the way, of the Ling-Sheng Su! With his height above the smoke, he jumped forward and tackled Taki away from the coin.

"EVERYONE! STOP MOVING RIGHT NOW!"

And everyone froze and looked at the angry Angol Fear. The coin dropped onto the ground and started spinning. Tension rised as everyone stared at it and waited for the outcome. Algol leaned in close. "It's… it's… head!"

Zasalamel cursed and the T.V people had to beep that out. Raphael gave Siegfried a high five and walked over to the hat of fate. He reached in and moved his hand around to search for a good trial. Zasalamel crossed his arms and snapped, "Will you hurry it up! It's not like you can read any of those pieces of papers in the first place!"

Just to annoy Zasalamel, Raphael stuck his tongue out at him and he rummaged around the hat for a whole five minute before he grabbed a piece of paper and handed it over to Algol. Algol looked at the slip of paper and his eyes widened. "Woah, you've picked a bad one for sure Raphael."

Raphael looked over Algol's shoulders and he felt the air rush out of his lungs. "Are you serious?"

"Why? What in the world did he pick?" Maxi asked curiously.

Sophitia tapped her chin and pondered about it. "It can't be that bad. Can it?"

Raphael gulped. "It's Fear Factor combined with a Haunted House combo…." His teammates stared at him. All the blood drained out of their faces; Maxi and Talim fainted and Cassandra went into shock.

Team Draw had also turned rather pale and they looked at Zasalamel. Zasalamel turned to Algol and murmured, "Can we have a redo?"

"No."

Zasalamel sighed. "That's why; I should've been the one to pick the trial."

Standing outside Soul Land new haunted house that was restructured for the trial. Algol began explaining the rules while the two teams, a crowd of people, and the T.V crew watched. "As you can see, this haunted house before us is-"

"HUGE!" cried Mitsurugi.

"GIGANTIC!" added Hwang.

"This is more like a haunted mansion than a house," Setsuka pointed out.

Algol glared at them and they shut up. "Continuing, the last two person on each team that can last the longest in there will be the contestants in the Fear Factor part which is where the most points will be awarded. Beware though; there are traps in that house that'll expel you out of there. So even if you manage to stand tall and brave all the mental horror stuff, you can still fall through a trapdoor or get launched out a window. That would look quite embarrassing since we bugged the place with hidden cameras so that the audience can enjoy this. And the longer each person lasts in there, the more points you'll be awarded for your team."

"Awww, come on…" groaned Rock. He did not want to get launched out a window while Bangoo was watching this.

Algol paused for a moment so that the two teams can process all the information. "I have good news though; this house has all the needed utilities and items needed to survive for at least a week. If there are more than two people on each team that are still in there, then I guess it'll turn into a contest into how long can you guys survive without food. Until then, no one is allowed to come near this area within a fifty feet radius and whoever leaves the house is out. The garden in the backyard is alright though. So are you guys ready?"

Raphael looked at his team and he gave them the thumbs up. Zasalamel looked at his team and gave them the –whoever runs out of there first will be sucked into my blackhole- look. Team Draw gulped nervously and turned their attention back to Algol. "On your marks, get set, go!"

The two teams charged forward and they jammed the doorway. Algol, the crowds and the T.V crew stared silently. "Get your foot off my foot!" And Raphael shoved Nightmare away even harder.

"Stop messing up my hair!" Maxi slapped Voldo and the two began a intense slap match.

Behind them, Seong-Mina elbowed Ivy in the stomach. "Why are your breasts so big!"

"Well aren't we cheeky! Why don't you admit that you're just jealous!" Ivy stomped down on Mina's foot in retaliation

"Yun-Seong! You ruined my hat!" Yun-Seong looked down at Talim's hat that was under his foot.

"Sorry Tal, I'll get it for you." He bent down to pick it up for her but then Rock stumbled back into him and the two squashed Talim's hat even further.

Cassandra and Setsuka were both trying to claw Mitsurugi and beside them, Hilde was pulling on Tira's ponytail. "Get your hair out of my face!"

Let go of my hair before I rip out your hair!" snarled Tira as she grabbed Hilde's long red hair and yanked on hard.

Amy was the only one with any logic and she looked at the people that were jamming the doorway from a safe one meter away. Algol shuffled over to her and held the microphone out towards her. "So Amy, how long do you think your team will last?"

"No more than three days probably…"

They both turned their heads to look at Siegfried who was holding a bloody nose while Cervantes was laughing victoriously. Amy spoke in to the microphone. "Make that one day. And can you get someone to shove them through? This sunlight is ruining my complexion."

Algol asked for a few volunteer from the crowd and the ten random people ran forward to shove the teams in. After ten minutes, everyone was finally squeezed inside and Amy walked inside as well. The door slammed closed and an ominous silence penetrated the air. "Well, I guess our job's done here." And everyone got ready to leave but then they heard someone scream in pure terror.

Algol thought, "That was rather fast. We didn't set anything scary in the foyer yet."

* * *

><p>Inside the house at the foyer...<p>

"HSHHSHS (I DON'T WANNA DO THIS ANYMORE! WHY IS IT SO DARK)!" screamed Lizardman who was frantically trying to open the door. But he should've pushed it instread of pulling on it.

"WHAT THE HECK IS HE SAYING?" cried Zasalamel who was holding on to the Lizard by the tail.

Rock began translating. "He basically said that he wants to get out of here."

"YOU'RE NOT LEAVING! WE'VE ONLY BEEN INSIDE FOR TEN SECONDS!" And Zasalamel began dragging Lizardman away.

"SSHSHS! (NO! I DON'T WANT TO DO THIS!")" Lizardman grabbed on the wood panelings on the floor with his scaly clawed hands and left deep scratches in the wood as Zasalamel struggled to pull him away from the door.

"JUST TAKE IT LIKE A MAN!" With a mighty pull, Zasalamel succeeded in increasing the distance to the door from Lizardman.

"Zasalamel, technically, he's a lizard," someone pointed out.

"WILL YOU BE QUIET YUN-SEONG!"

Raphael and his group watched this with an amused expression on their face. Except for Kilik and Talim since they were the nice guys on that team. "Ha, it looks like this trial is turning in our favor," Raphael laughed smugly. "Well then, let's get going as well." And they trudged up the creaky steps that was covered in spiderwebs while lightning flashed outside.

* * *

><p>Darkwings13: Thanks to all the people who favorited and review this story! I love you guys! It's thanks to you that I'm motivated to write and I shall do my best in repaying you guys with more great chapters (I hope). So, who should the four contestants for Fear Factor be? I have no idea yet. Just a side note, my sister totally digs Korean guys and their K-pop song so I just had to add her in there. Anyway, who'll be the first one to leave the haunted house of horror? Will the teams be able to live together for a week without killing anyone? When will the food run out? Until next time, bye bye.<p> 


	14. Search

The first thing the two teams did was to divide up the bedrooms. Raphael took all the odd numbered bedrooms for his teammates while Zasalamel took all the even numbered rooms for his team. Here's the list.

Room 1-Raphael

Room 2-Zasalamel

Room 3-Amy

Room4-Lizardman

Room 5-Siegfried

Room 6-Nightamre

Room 7-Hilde

Room 8-Tira

Room 9-Setsuka

Room 10-Mitsurugi

Room 11-Maxi

Room12- Rock

Room 13-Kilik

Room 14-Xianghua

Room 15-Ivy

Room 16-Cervantes

Room 17-Yoshimitsu

Room 18-Taki

Room 19-Sophitia

Room 20-Hwang

Room 21-Cassandra

Room 22-Seong-Mina

Room 23-Talim

Room24-Yun-Seong

* * *

><p>"Why do I get room 13!" exclaimed Kilik.<p>

His teammates were gathered around him in the dark and creep hallway. The lights above their head shone weakly while the wood beneath their feet creaked with every steps. The window at the end of the hallway was dirty and the red curtains were tattered and dusty. Raphael scratched his nose and shrugged. "You have the holy stone around your neck for protection; therefore, you have a better chance of surviving whatever nightmares is in that room."

Kilik narrowed his eyes at Raphael. "You had it all planned out, didn't you?"

"Oh look, it's time to for bed," and Raphael ran away to his room.

Everyone wished Kilik good luck and they headed to their own rooms."SHHSH!" They turned at the sound of Lizardman screaming for the millionth time in the last few hours and everyone sighed tiredly.

"He's not going to last very long," whispered Sophitia.

Maxi groaned and went to his bedroom. "I hope he'll shut up so we can get some sleep."

* * *

><p>In Lizardman's bedroom…<p>

"There, that should do it," Zasalamel stepped backward to admire his handiwork while the rest of Team Draw gathered around him as well.

Nightmare whispered to Mitsurugi in a low tone of voice. "I feel kinda sorry for him." The two glanced down at the lizard that was tied down to the bed and they winced.

Xianghua and Seong-Mina gave the lizard a comforting pat on the head while Yun-Seong pulled the blanket over him. "Don't worry man; your bedroom is right beside Zasalamel. There's nothing in this house that would dare get you with him nearby."

But Lizardman didn't feel very reassured by Yun-Seong's words and he continued struggling to get himself loose from the ropes. Zasalamel sighed and ordered everyone out of the room. "He'll probably feel better after a good night's sleep." And Zasalamel closed the door and went to his bedroom.

* * *

><p>Three hours later….<p>

"Zasalamel! Open up this instant!" Raphael was standing outside Zasalmel's door in his baby bat pajamas and he was furiously pounding on the door.

Opening the door, Zasalamel glared at the vampire. "What do you want Sorel? For god's sake it's two in the morning!"

Snapping his fingers, Raphael replied, "Exactement! Can't you shut that lizard up! I can't get a wink of sleep with the all racket he's making! How can I win this contest if I don't have my beauty sleep?"

Zasalamel crossed his arms and said, "Humph. I don't hear anyone else complaining. And for your information, there's no way you're going to win in the first place. If you do, I'll eat your boots."

Raphael put his nose up in the air haughtily. "My boots are worth a thousand dollars! You can eat Siegfried's boots instead. But anyway, the only reason no one's complaining is because they're all too freaked out to leave their rooms in the middle of the night you idiot! The only reason I finally summoned up my courage to step outside is because your lizard sounds like he auditioning for some horror movie! I can't take another minute of this infernal racket!" Raphael stopped to breath after that really long and angry speech.

Zasalamel looked at him for a moment before slamming the door shut in Raphael's face. Raphael snarled back and kicked it. "Don't you dare ignore me like that! I'll get you for this!" Raphael whipped out a black permanent marker and started scribbling on the door. He wrote, 'Monsieur Baldie' on the door and with a final contemptuous glare, he headed back to his room to put in some ear plugs.

About an hour later, Raphael was still rolling around in bed and trying to get some sleep but the lizard was still screaming his head off. He reached over for his pillow and popped the thing over his head to try and drown out the sound. "What would I give, if that lizard can shut up for just five minutes…" he mumbled. To his surprise, the noise died down and Raphael sighed in relief. Maybe the lizard had finally ran out of energy and fell asleep.

In Lizardman's room, the lizard had finally quieted down. Not because he was tired or because his throat was sore (it was). He had finally shut up because a dark figure in a black cloak had gagged him, blindfolded him and for good measure, the dude then shot him with a tranquilizer gun. Staying still for a moment, this mysterious man listened for the sounds of anyone waking up. When he could hear nothing, he slunged Lizardman over his shoulder and disappeared into the darkness of the night. Watching from a computer screen, Algol looked at the judges and nodded. They scratched off Lizardman's name from the list and they gave Team Draw ten points because Lizardman had lasted one day. Algol then nodded to some other people and they hastily made their way over to a computer screen. They pressed a button and the night illusion field sprung up around the haunted mansion. For the soul calibur crew in there, it'll seem like it's permanently night time. They pressed a second button and something else was activated….

* * *

><p>The very next morning…well… it was actually noon because everyone slept in late since they were kept up for half the night from Lizardman's screaming.<p>

"Raphael! Open up this instant!" Zasalamel was dressed and he was standing outside Raphael's door in a very angry fashion. The rest of his teammates were standing behind him and they looked really angry as well.

A very tired Raphael with black circles under his eyes opened up the door and glared at them. "If you're here to complain about the words I scribbled on your door, then I'm going to shut the door in your face. I'm too tired to deal with your complaints right now."

But Zasalamel grabbed Raphael and leaned in close toward his face. "What have you done with Lizardman?" he asked dangerously.

Raphael raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about? I haven't done anything to that dumb lizard."

"Zasalamel told us about how angry you were last night about Lizardman's screaming. How do we know you didn't do something to him to make him shut up?" said Taki as she crossed her arms and waited for an explanation.

Raphael ran a hand through his bed hair in exasperation. "Look here people. After drawing on Zasalamel's door, I did not leave my room. Are you sure Lizardman didn't wander off to find the bathroom or something? This mansion is pretty big."

Just then, all of Raphael's comrades exited their room and they headed over to him to see what the commotion was about. Yoshimitsu looked at all the people cramping up the hallway and he turned to look at Raphael. "What have thou done this time?"

Raphael threw up his hand in exasperation."I didn't do anything! Zasalamel here is accusing me of being the one responsible for Lizardman's disappearance." Everyone on his group turned to look at Zasalamel.

Nightmare said, "He does seem like the most suspicious one. With Lizardman gone, our team power is weakened."

"And he can get some sleep," added Hwang.

Ivy gave a small cough and everyone turned to look at her. "I have a wonderful suggestion. Why don't you guys trying searching for Lizardman first. If you can't find him, then the only reasonable explanation is that he ran away because this place was too scary for him."

Amy spoke up beside her. "I'm sure my father didn't do anything to Lizardman. If he did, we would've heard him trip or something." Amy saw her father looking at her with a stun expression on his face. "What? You're not exactly known for your skills in espionage dad."

Everyone on Team Draw nodded at that statement. Zasalamel sighed and motioned for his team to follow him downstairs. "After lunch, we'll spilt up and search for Lizardman. Be on your guard and if you guys run into any trouble, shout for help."

Raphael motioned for his team to go downstair and have lunch as well while he went back to his room to change when they suddenly heard Cassandra calling for them. "Guys! Guys! You've got to see this!"

Everyone rushed over to the window at the end of the hallway and they peeked outside. Siegfried squinted and said, "What are we suppose to be looking at Cassandra?"

She pointed upward at the moon. "Why is there a full moon in the night sky when it's noon?"

Siegfried mouth dropped open. "That's… a really good point."

Talim whimpered beside him. "Do you think this place is really haunted? I mean, what if the judges got someone to curse the place or something to make it really dramatic?"

Raphael scoffed at her fears. "Don't be silly. They said they only restructured the place, and there's no way they'll let the contestants come into any real harm. It's team Draw that you'll have to worry about. I'll bet those guys are up to something. Everyone! Be on your guard! Don't give our enemy the chance to strike."

The lightbulb over their head flickered ominously and they looked upward at it. "I hope you're right about this man," Maxi murmured quietly.

* * *

><p>Zasalamel sat down on the dusty dining chair and it broke. "Ahh! What the!"<p>

Beside him, Mitsurugi touched another chair and the thing crumbled into dust. "I don't think these things are very stable."

Team Draw settled for eating on the floor while the girls and Voldo headed into the kitchen to make lunch. Except for Tira, Zasalamel was afraid she would either blow up the kitchen or make something questionable to their health. Nightmare was currently trying to entertain his girlfriend by recalling stories of how he had once managed to beat Siegfried at Wii sports. Cervantes was drawing random doodles on the dusty floor while Rock and Mitsurugi was deep in discussion about something. Hwang and Yun-Seong were playing 'I spy'.

"I spy with my little eyes, someone who seems kinda angry," said Hwang.

"Ahaha! It's Zassy!" answered Tira who was eavesdropping on their conversation.

Everyone burst out laughing and Zasalamel sighed tiredly and ignored their immaturity.

"What the!"

Taki, Seong-Mina, Xianghua and Voldo stomped out of the kitchen angrily and Voldo said, "Hssh!"

The translator strapped on his back began translating. "We only have canned food to eat!"

They dropped a bunch of canned stuff on the floor. Canned beans, canned fish, canned beans, canned carrots, more canned beans, etc. "I'll take the canned beans."

Everyone turned to look at Mitsurugi. The samurai raised his hands up in a –why are you looking at me like that- gesture.

* * *

><p>From the second dining room…<p>

"Sacrebleu! Why are there are only canned food! This food is disgusting! I'm not eating it!" Raphael crossed his arms and shook his head over and over again. But Setsuka merely dumped some canned carrots on his dish and moved onto Yoshimitsu's dish. "Ahh! Why did you give me carrots?"

"What's wrong with carrots?" asked Setsuka as she popped some canned sardines on Yoshimitsu's dish.

"He doesn't like carrots," said Talim as Setsuka plopped some canned chili on her plates. "He was complaining about carrots the whole time we were at the cafeteria at the hospital."

Maxi raised up his hand and said, "Setsuka, do you have any canned potatoes?"

Setsuka walked over with a can opener and a can of potatoes. "Here you go."

"Do you have any canned fruits Setsuka?" asked Cassandra.

"Me too please," added Sophitia.

Amy stabbed her fork into her canned brussel sprouts and frowned. "This stuff looks kinda questionable." She picked up her opened can and looked at the expiry date. "Hold on a moment guys, you should check the expiry dates on these things before you eat them."

Everyone froze. After a minute of silence they scrambled for their cans and sighed in relief when the expiry dates of their food was still good. Except for Siegfried. "Hmm, mine says that it expired fifty years ago."

Hilde leaped out of her chair beside him and began pounding on his back. "Spit it out! Hurry! If you die from eating expired food, Nightmare will laugh his head off at your gravestone!"

"Ack! I- haugh! I haven't -cough- eaten it yet! Hilde! Cough- stop!"

Hilde let out a "Whew, that was close," and she stopped hitting him on the back.

Cassandra turned to Raphael and said, "Do you think we should tell Team Draw about this? I mean what if they die or something?"

Raphael shrugged. "Don't worry, they can just run out of here and call the hospital to get their stomach pumped." He didn't notice Talim texting under the table to warn Yun-Seong and Seong-Mina because even though they were on the other team, they were still her friends and she didn't want them to die. Kilik was doing the same thing to warn Xianghua about the expired food. So as Raphael moved his foot; it collided with Talim's back and sent her tumbling into Kilik and the two tumbled out from beneath the table. "Talim! Kilik! What were you doing under there?"

"Ahaha… I was…admiring your boots! Umm, where did you buy them Raphael?" It was a terrible lie but Talim wasn't used to fibbing. Kilik crossed his fingers for luck and he hope that Raphael would believe the lie.

Thankfully, Raphael bought it and he began telling her about this amazing shoe store in Italy while everyone finished off their canned food. Siegfried had to get a new can though.

* * *

><p>"Guys! Stop eating!" cried Seong-Mina.<p>

While trying to spoon feed Nightmare, Tira looked up at her and asked, "Why. This food is so yummy! Right Nighty?"

"Omph!" Nightmare was trying to dodge the canned beef she was trying to pop into his mouth.

"Kilik just texted me that some of the canned food is way expired. Apparently, Siegfried nearly ate something that expired fifty years ago!" exclaimed Xianghua as she waved her cellphone around wildly.

Nightmare spat out the canned beef Tira had successfully popped into his mouth and frantically grabbed his can. To his immense relief, it was still good. Everyone else followed suit and they smiled or laughed if their food was still alright. Cervantes was going to continue eating but then he noticed that Mitsurugi was missing. "Hey, where did that samurai go?"

Silence ensued for a few minutes but then Hwang said, "I think he said he was going to the washroom. He did have three cans of beans."

Taki reached over and grabbed the three cans sitting in front of Mitsurugi's dish. Examining them, she let out a small, "Oh…"

"What do you mean by oh?" Rock asked curiously.

"Two of the cans are fine. But the third one expired fifty years ago…" Taki gulped and continued. "I think Mitsurugi's going to need to quit and get his stomach pumped."

Zasalamel stood up and everyone's attention quickly zoomed in on him. The hidden camera on the ceiling also zoomed in on his face and the people who are watching Soul Clash leaned alittle closer to the T.V. with wide eyes. A big vein was throbbing on his forehead and he said, "When I get out of here, I'm going to destroy that food company. Or kill the one in charge of our food supplies."

Later that day, the one in charge of their food supplies changed his name, had plastic surgery, bought a plane ticket and escaped to the Bermuda Triangle. Because the chances of survival was greater in that place than facing Zasalamel's wrath.

* * *

><p>Watching from a window, Raphael and his team watched as an ambulance pulled up the haunted mansion and Mitsurugi was wheeled out on a stretcher. Setsuka was the happiest to see her arch enemy suffer such terrible food poisoning and she made a mental note to go pray to her master and tell him the good news.<p>

Watching from their T.V, the judges crossed off the samurai's name and gave Team Draw another ten points. As the ambulance drove away, Raphael laughed with glee and high five Amy. "At this rate, we'll win this thing for sure!"

Amy cracked a smile and continued looking out the window at the disappearing ambulance. "They've lost two members in the span of one day; I would've never imagined that it'd be this easy father."

"Thou should not be so overconfident. I'm sure Zasalamel must've tripled his defense and will most likely try to eliminate some of our members himself," Yoshimitsu pointed out logically.

Sophitia squinted in to the distance and said, "I think Yoshimitsu is right. Look, Zasalamel just figured out a way to obtain fresh food."

Raphael opened the window and gasped. Tira's ravens were flying toward the house and they were carrying fresh and delicious meals for Team Draw. Two of the ravens was actually carrying a roasted turkey! From the other side, Zasalamel flung open his window and the ravens flew inside with the piping hot food. Leaning out, Zasalamel grinned. "Top this Sorel."

"Talim! Hurry up and use you wind powers to blow away those stupid birds!" Raphael commanded imperiously.

"But that's going to make Tira hate me even more," Talim objected worriedly. "She'll kill me for sure."

Hilde gave her a comforting pat on the back. "No need to fear soldier. As long as I'm here, I'll protect you."

Everyone else said something similar and they gave their baby of the group a hug. Talim sniffled and wiped away some tears. "Thanks guys. I'll do my best then." Stepping up to the window, Talim called upon her wind powers and… nothing happened. "Huh? Why aren't my powers working? Wind? Winnnndd… Windzzzz… Wiiiinndsss?"

"I don't think saying wind in different ways is going to work," said Ivy.

Talim burst into tears and sobbed. "Wahh! I'm a failure!"

Kilik stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Either this place is really cursed or maybe your power is still recovering from the tornado incident."

Zasalamel laughed at them from his window. "It looks like you're not going to be able to get in my way this time Raphael. My team's going to be enjoying food from five star restaurants while you guys eat canned food."

Raphael ground his teeth and said, "Enjoy this while you can Zasalamel. You can eat Siegfried's boots when you lose."

Siegfried turned to look at Raphael with a confused expression on his face. "What do you mean he's going to eat my boots?"

"I'll buy you new boots so don't worry about it." Raphael turned to insult Zasalamel some more but the guy had already closed the window to go eat.

* * *

><p>"Muhmp, this is good," said Yun-Seong as he finished up his steak.<p>

Nightmare nodded beside him and gulped down some more expensive sushi. "Too bad Mitsurugi had food poisoning before he could eat this."

After everyone was finished eating, Zasalamel organized his teams into groups to go search for Lizardman. "We'll meet back here in this dining room after three hours. Be on your guard because we cannot afford to lose any more people."

"Don't worry Zassy. You can depend on us," giggled Tira as she held on to Nightmare's arm and the two went off to the laundry room.

Rock, Taki and Xianghua headed off to search the unoccupied bedrooms on the third floor. On the first floor, Seong-Mina, Yun-Seong and Hwang decided to search the wardrobe room. And Cervantes and Voldo headed off to the generator room to conduct their part of the search. Watching his teammates leave, Zasalamel headed to his room to try and concoct a plan to get rid of two of Raphael's people to even the playing field again.

* * *

><p>An hour of searching later…<p>

Nightmare peered into the broken washing machine and shook his head. "He's not here."

Tira bent down to look into the old drying machine and shook her head as well. "He's not here either Nighty. Should we look somewhere else?" Tira was about to leave but then she noticed a shiny penny inside the drying machine. "Oh! Neat! A lucky penny!" She crawled into the machine to retrieve it but then the door slammed shut.

"Tira! What are you doing?" Nightmare ran over and tried to open the door but the thing wouldn't budge. He tried to break open the door but that didn't work either.

Banging on the door, Tira cried out. "Nighty! Get me out of here!"

"Hold on Tira! I'll go get help. It's alright, the darkness isn't that bad!" and Nightmare ran off to find someone to open the drying machine and get Tira out.

Shifting into her gloomy side, Tira shouted. "If you don't come back in one hour, I'll kill you Nightmare! Even if we are dating!"

* * *

><p>"Do you think Tira's craziness is starting to rub off on us? Or is that really a ghost trying on a really hideous pink dress that has more ruffles than the ruffles on Raphael's outfit?" whispered Seong-Mina.<p>

The three Koreans were hiding behind some curtains and watching a ghost lady trying on the twentieth outfit for the past hour. Too scared to move, they had remain there and tried to convince themselves that they were merely suffering strange illusions due to the lack of sleep they had last night. Sadly, that theory was starting to become really weak now. Yun-Seong turned to Seong-Mina and replied quietly. "Do you think you can text Taki and ask her to come over here and seal the ghost away or something? I mean, that is what she does all the time right?"

"Do it as quietly as you can," added Hwang. "I don't want to think about what'll happen if that thing notices us."

Seong-Mina pulled out her cellphone and quietly began texting Taki. But then the darn thing rang because Zasalamel had called to check up on their status. "Hello? Have you guys found Lizardman yet? Hello? ANSWER ME THIS INSTANT BEFORE I GET ANGRY!"

But Seong-Mina, Hwang and Yun-Seong was tied up to a chair by the pink ruffly dress and the ghost had stuffed a dirty sock in their mouths to shut out their screaming. Smiling down at her captives she whistled for some of her ghost friends to join the fun and the three Koreans struggled even harder to escape. Two more ghosts appeared a male and a female and they looked at each other with an amused smile on their ghostly faces.

Zasalamel tried calling about three more times before hanging up. He had tried to look into the future to see what those three idiots were up to but he came up with nothing. Ever since he stepped foot in this place, his powers have been acting rather wacky. This place couldn't possibly be haunted for real could it? Sighing, he walked out of his room, locked it and went to search for his teammates. As he walked past Raphael's room, he could hear laughter and chit chat. Raphael's team still had all their people intact and they were having fun while his team was dealing with -god knows what- horrors is in this place. Zasalamel narrowed his eyes at the door. "Enjoy this while you can Sorel." With a swish of of his robes, he left.

* * *

><p>Looking under the bed, Taki cringed as a rat ran past her. "He's not here."<p>

Rock let out an animal cry to try and reach Lizardman but nothing responded. "I don't think he's here anymore. If he was, he would've responded to my call of the wild."

Pushing open the closet, Xianghua said, "Maybe he's unconscious and he can't hear us."

Just them, Nightmare smashed the door open and entered. "Nightmare! What's gotten into you?" exclaimed Xianghua as she brushed the splinters of wood off her blue vest and white shorts.

"Tira's in trouble! She's trapped in the drying machine in the laundry room! You've got to help me open up that blasted door!"

Rock leapt over to Nightmare side and said, "Show me the way. I'll help you save her."

As they turned to leave, Nightmare said, "Taki, Xianghua, I'd suggest you guys go and look for Yun-Seong's group. This house is no joke, they're probably in trouble."

Taki merely laughed and waved it off. "There is no demon I cannot seal. I'd like to see what kind of ghost or monster this house can come up with that'll frighten me.

* * *

><p>In Raphael's room…<p>

"What should we play next?" asked Raphael as he shuffled a deck of cards.

Maxi, Siegfried, Yoshimitsu and Raphael had been playing black jack for the past hour and they were starting to get bored. Amy, Talim, Cassandra and Sophitia were doing their nails to pass the time while giggling and talking about girl stuff. Near the big window, Ivy, Setsuka, and Hilde were discussing combat tactics. "If only we had our weapons here, then we could actually test it out," Hilde sighed sadly. The rules of the trial banned them from bringing their weapons into the house.

Meanwhile, Kilik was doing about a thousand pushups to make sure that his training hasn't fallen behind. "Two thousand four hundred and twenty one, two thousand four hundred and twenty two…"

Yoshimitsu got up and did a quick stretch. "Who wants to take my place for a moment? I'll be going to the bathroom for a second."

Talim looked up at him and said, "Are you guys playing goldfish?"

Raphael, Siegfried, Maxi and Yoshimitsu looked at each other and they could not help but burst out laughing. Cassandra gave them a disapproving look. "Oh be quiet guys. Stop teasing the poor girl."

Sophitia smiled kindly at the young priestess and took out a pack of cards herself. "Here Talim, we can play goldfish if you want."

But then the lights on the ceiling died and the room was thrown into darkness. "Hey, who turned out thee light?" said Yoshimitsu as he stumbled around.

"Hold on guys. I think there were some candles lying around here somewhere." They heard Ivy rummaged around and knocking things over. After two minutes, Ivy finally found the candles and lit them. "There we go. Here's three candles." She gave the other two to Kilik and Sophitia.

Hilde opened the window but it was still pitch black outside (except for the big white moon shining up in the sky) due to the night field that was set up by the judges. "That's weird. Does the moon look like its smaller compared to yesterday?"

Setsuka arched an eyebrow. "It's called the lunar cycle Hilde."

"I know the phases of the moon ," Hilde snapped impatiently. "But this one doesn't seem normal."

"Guys, why don't we explore the house and look for the generator room?" Siegfried interrupted. "I don't think these candles will last forever."

Amy looked at the candle in Ivy's hand and nodded. "Looking for more candles would be a smart idea as well."

Counting the people in the room, Raphael began organizing them into groups. "Setsuka, Maxi, Yoshimitsu and Kilik will be group 1. Sophitia, Cassandra, Hilde and Siegfried will be group 2. And my group will by Amy, Talim and Ivy. If you guys get lost or your candle burns out then don't panic. Just run straight and I'm sure you'll run into someone sooner or later."

Giving that suggestion a questioning glance, Ivy said, "Ok… If you guys run into trouble, just make sure you guys stick together. Do not separate or go off on your own. Meet back here after an hour or if the lights come back on."

Everyone liked Ivy's plan better and as they headed out the room, they all wished each other good luck. Talim peeked out the door and shivered. "Why can't I go with Kilik? He has the holy stone…"

Raphael merely pushed her out into the hallway and walked forward while Talim scrambled to catch up. "As your baby-sitter, I have no choice but to include you in my group. Now stop being such a scardey cat Talim. No one's going to get you with me, the great and handsome Raphael Sorel nearby."

"I don't think being handsome is going to be of much use in this place," muttered a frightened Talim as she huddled closely to the group.

Ivy laughed and gave Talim a small pat on the head. "Just stay by my side and nothing will hurt you. Besides, you're a priestess! Anything unholy would think twice before attacking you. After this is all done, do you want to tell me about your wind rituals for my alchemy research?"

"Thanks Ivy. And sure I'll help you with your research." After a moment's thought, Talim added, "I wish you were my baby-sitter instead of Raphael."

Ivy grinned and they continued walking behind Raphael and Amy who was leading the way.

* * *

><p>In the generator room….<p>

"Shshsh!"

Voldo's translator began translating. "I told you not to touch anything! Why didn't you listen! You've just blown the fuse for the entire house!"

"Yelling at me isn't going to help Voldo. Let's just try to fix the stupid thing," retorted Cervantes who was fumbling with the fuse box.

Voldo crossed his arms and growled. "Shshsh."

"The probability of you fixing that thing is less likely than Astaroth and Ashlotte getting married," translated the translator.

After a few minutes of standing in complete darkness with Cervantes trying to fix the fuse box, the pirate ran out of patience and punched the thing. To his surprise, the lights came back on. But the lights were weak (you could barely see across the room) and it was red. "At least we can see again," said a rather optimistic Cervantes.

But then blood began pouring down the wall and Cervantes screamed. Voldo and Cervantes quickly ran out of there while the translator was translating Voldo's newest sentence. "Thanks a lot Cervantes. From now on, you're not touching anything."

* * *

><p>Inside a high-tech room with lots of computer and advanced technology that you would go gaga over…<p>

"You can stop guys. That's some good tomato juice you're wasting," said Algol.

The trap team operating the horror stuff inside the Haunted House nodded and they pushed the button to stop the blood (tomato juice) from flowing. Algol peered alittle closer at the computer screen and laughed. "Oh, this is going to be good." Turning to the recording team, he said, "Make sure you capture everything perfectly. The audience is going to love this."

* * *

><p>Darkwings13: What's going on with everyone's powers? Is this place really cursed or haunted? What's going to happen next? Read on and find out my wonderful readers.<p> 


	15. The Robot and The Blob

"If you weren't posses by a ghost, I would've sucked you into my black hole already!" Zasalamel shouted angrily as he sidestepped one of Yun-Seong's punches. He turned to Taki and said, "Can't you do anything about the ghosts inside them?"

"I wish!" Taki retorted quickly as she kicked Hwang away from her. "But my powers aren't working for some stupid reason!"

In the middle of the room, Xianghua and Seong-Mina were fighting each other using Kung-Fu since they didn't have their weapons. "Snap out of it Mina! It's me, Xianghua!" But the possessed Seong-Mina did not reply and she merely went into the preying mantis stance to attack.

Ducking underneath Zasalamel's kick, Yun-Seong utilized his crane stance and kicked the guy in an area that probably would've resulted in him getting sucked into a black hole if he wasn't possessed. But as Zasalamel held in the tears of pain, he was seriously starting to get really tempted of sucking them into his black hole. However, that would eliminate three more of their team members and Raphael would be even more assured of a victory. "Curse it all! I'll teach those ghosts a lesson they'll remember for the rest of their eternal afterlife!" And Zasalamel went into –DESTRUCTION- mode.

* * *

><p>"Eeeek!" Talim grabbed the closest thing she could find to cover up her eyes. "Why is the light red? This place must be haunted for real! I want to get out of here!"<p>

"Huagh! You're… choking me!" Raphael tried to tug his cape away from her but the small girl had an iron grip on the thing. "Talim! The fricking lights... huagh! Is just messed up! Your grandmother would be ashamed of... cough... of having such a wimpy granddaughter!"

Amy and Ivy came over to Talim and after a few minutes of reassurance, the priestess stopped pulling on Raphael's cape so much. But she was still using the thing to cover her eyes since she was sure that, "something scary would appear sooner or later."

"At least we don't need the candle anymore." Ivy blew out the flame and tossed the candle aside.

Marching through the hallway, Raphael had a disgruntled look on his face while Talim followed closely behind with her face still buried in his cape. Ivy and Amy had an amused expression on their faces and they let out a few chuckles once in awhile. "She sure is adorable. If I had a daughter, I would've wanted her to be like Talim," mused Ivy. "But of course, I don't plan to have a child since it would only be burdened with my cursed blood." Ivy added the last part quietly.

Just then, Voldo and Cervantes ran past them and they could hear Voldo lecturing the pirate as the two continued running down the creepy hallway. "Hshs shshssshhh sshhhrs! Shhshssh hshs!"

And Voldo's translator began translating. "It's all because of you that the all the lights in this entire house is red! To boot, you've activated something else in that room! I'd be surprised if you can last two more days in this place without getting us killed!" and their voices faded along with their footsteps as the two disappeared from sight.

Amy crossed her arms and peered down the hallway. "From what Voldo said, I'm assuming Cervantes must've messed something up in the generator room. Should we head down there and fix the lights?"

"But Voldo said that Cervantes activated something weird back there," Talim mumbled quietly into Raphael's cape.

Smirking, Ivy walked forward. "I want to see the thing that scared Cervantes so much. That way, I can laugh in his face and tell him that he's a coward."

Raphael shrugged and followed her. "I just want the lights to get back to normal so that maybe a certain somebody" He looked at Talim behind him. "could let go of my cape."

Five mins later…

"What- what in the world? What happened in here?" Ivy's eyes widened to see the bloodstains on the wall and the puddles of blood on the floor.

"Hmmm? What is it?" asked Talim as she slowly removed the cape from her eyes.

But Raphael quickly put his hand over her eyes since he was sure that she would faint (or throw up on him) if she saw what the room looked like. For good measure, he put his other hand over Amy's eyes since he didn't want his precious girl to be traumatized. But Amy merely frowned. "What are you covering my eyes for dad? I've seen scarier horror movies than this."

"What? But I never let you watch those!"

"I watched them while you were sleeping." As if that was a good enough answer, Amy pushed her father's hand away and strode into the room. Looking at the messed up fuse box on the other side of the wall, Amy pursed her lips in annoyance. "It looks like Voldo was right about Cervantes messing up the fuse box."

Striding forward, Ivy peered at the fuse box and said, "This can be fixed easily enough. But it looks like the idiot punched it and made it worse."

"Can you fix it?" asked Raphael as he lead Talim into the room with his hand still covering her eyes.

"Give me about ten minutes and the lights will back to normal," replied the alchemist as she began fiddling with the thing.

Squish. Squish. Squish.

"Do you guys hear that?" Amy asked quietly.

Everyone froze and nodded. They turned around to see some kind of red blob that resembled pudding rise up from the blood puddles on the floor and head slowly toward them. It opened up it mouth and it looked like it wanted to swallow them up like some giant amoeba using endocytosis. "What are we looking at?" Talim couldn't see anything with Raphael's hand still over her eyes.

"You really don't want to know that…" answered Ivy as the group backed up against the wall since the red blob was blocking the doorway.

Talim shook her head. "I'll try my best to keep calm. Now please, let me see what's going on." She peeked out from behind Raphael hand and tilted her head in confusion. "Why is that giant pudding moving?"

Amy sighed and Ivy and her father did the same thing. "She can be really dense sometimes…" said Raphael. And the red pudding monster glomped downward on them.

* * *

><p>"Siegfried! Get out of my way!" Nightmare shouted impatiently. The blonde knight and Hilde were standing defiantly in the middle of the small spider infested hallway. Sophitia and Cassandra were behind them and they looked at the argument with interest. Nightmare balled up his fist and repeated the command with alittle more force. "GET YOUR FAT A$$ OUT OF THE WAY BEFORE I MAKE YOU PRETTY BOY!"<p>

Siegfried arched an eyebrow but Hilde merely smiled and said, "What's the matter Nightmare? Why are you in such a rush?"

"If you must know, I'm on my way to rescue Tira! If you don't move, I'll have Rock," Nightmare gestured to Rock who was standing beside him. "charged through and push you guys aside."

"You're going to rescue Tira? Great! We're definitely not moving now," laughed Hilde. "It's four against two, there's no way you can get past us. Victory will be ours!"

But then the floor trembled and everyone turned to look around. "Nightmare! Where the hell were you?" screamed gloomy Tira. It looked she was operating a mini transformer and her violet eyes flashed when she noticed Cassandra, Sophitia, Hilde and Siegfried. A long cord trailed behind the machine and the red light above their heads made Tira look even scarier than usual.

"Tira, it wasn't my fault! These guys were blocking the way!" Nightmare pointed to Siegfried accusingly. "And how in the world did you turn the drying machine into a transformer?"

"I reassembled it from the inside," Tira answered curtly. She then looked down from above at Hilde and smiled wickedly. "Our team will be one step closer to victory once I squish you and pretty boy beside you into a pancake. Are you ready?"

But Tira didn't notice Sophitia scaling the machine and the Greek warrior grabbed onto the controls beside Tira. "I won't let you hurt them Tira!"

"You! Get out of my way before I squish you into a pancake as well!" The two began fighting and wrestling over the machine and it was needless to say that the drying machine transformer charged forward in jerky movements that tore down the left wall and headed straight toward Rock, Nightmare, Siegfried, Hilde and Cassandra who were now running down the hallway for their lives.

"You should really control that crazy girlfriend of yours Nightmare!" screamed Cassandra.

"Maybe if you guys hadn't blocked my way in rescuing her we wouldn't be in this mess!" Nightmare retorted.

* * *

><p>Wiping his face with a handkerchief, Zasalamel let out a deep breath. "Phew. That was rather exhausting. But tell me, have you three learned your lesson?"<p>

The three ghosts cowered in the corner of the wall and their heads bobbed up and down frantically. Zasalamel narrowed his eyes at them and said, "If I ever catch you three coming anywhere near my people, I'll make you regret that fact that you can't die again. Understand? Now scram!"

The three ghosts flew out of there squealing like pigs. Zasalamel sighed and turned around to look at the three unconscious and beaten up Koreans. There was simply no other power besides the power of his **fists** to convince the ghosts to leave. It was certainly a good thing that the ghosts can feel pain while they were possessing Yun-Seong, Seong-Min and Hwang. The bad news is that the three Koreans are going to take awhile to recover. "Come on guys, let's get them to their rooms."

Xianghua and Taki nodded as they assisted Zasalamel in carrying the three to their rooms. They've been walking for awhile until they bumped into Kilik, Maxi, Setsuka and Yoshimitsu. Awkward silence…

Finally Xianghua smiled sweetly and said, "Kilik, could you kindly move over so we can get these three," she gestured to the three unconscious Koreans. "to their rooms."

"This is our chance to try and get rid of them. All we have to do is defeat Zasalamel, Xianghua and Taki and throw the six of them out of this house," whispered Setsuka to Kilik. "Plus, they're at a disadvantage since they have to care for their injured teammates."

"But she's my girlfriend," Kilik whispered back.

"There's love life in the middle of a war," Yoshimitsu said poetically. "Thou must do it for the team."

"Bu-but but-"

"You and Maxi take care of Zasalamel, Yoshimitsu can take care of Taki while I deal with Xianghua," said Setsuka.

"Oh Kilik. Why haven't you answered me?" Xianghua asked sweetly with a small hint of anger.

Kilik laughed nervously and said, "Umm… well. I uh…" But then his three teammates charged forward and that sort of answered her question. Closing his eyes, he charged forward as well. "I'm sorry Xianghua! But I've got no choice! Forgive me!"

Taki adjusted Seong-Mina's weight behind her and glared at Yoshimitsu. "Nothing personal but you're just in my way." Leaping into the air, she jumped onto Yoshimitsu's shoulders and with a graceful backflip; she kicked him in the face. "Sorry, but I'm not holding back."

"Thou will pay for that! Sorry or not, die!" And Yoshimitsu began fighting Taki but even with the extra weight, she was still pretty fast.

Dragging Hwang to one side, Xianghua dumped the guy against the wall and stepped forward to kick Setsuka. But she stepped onto Setsuka's long kimono and the fabric ripped as Setsuka backed away and she let out a piercing scream. "My kimono! You'll pay for this!"

Xianghua grabbed Maxi who was fighting against Zasalamel and used him as a human shield just in time as Setsuka punched forward. "Oauughhh….." Her fist connected with his face and as he flew backward toward Taki. She jumped just in time and Maxi flew into Yoshimitsu instead and the two tumbled to the floor.

* * *

><p>At the secret high tech room…<p>

"Rewind that will you?" said Algol as he pointed to the computer screen. "Oh and make it move in slow motion."

The guy replayed the scene where Setsuka punched Maxi in slow motion and everyone in the secret laughed at the look on Maxi's face. Someone spotted Zasalamel bodyslamming Kilik in the background in slow motion and they laughed even harder. "Never underestimate that guy," said one of the computer operators.

"Oh look, it's Raphael and his group!" someone pointed out. Everyone turned their attention back to the screen and said, "Oooohhh… that's not good."

'Oh look, it's the drying machine transformer robot thing chasing down Siegfried, Hilde, Nightmare, Rock and Cassandra. And Tira and Sophitia are stil wrestling over the controls," someone else pointed out.

* * *

><p>"Haugh!" gasped Ivy as she struggled to poke her head out of the red blob monster thing to breathe. But as soon as she breathed in, the monster sucked her back in its gelatinous body.<p>

Raphael, Amy and Talim were doing the same thing and Ivy turned her head to see the monster heading toward Zasalamel, Kilik, Maxi, Yoshimitsu, Xianghua and Setsuka. They must've noticed as well because Zasalamel and Taki threw Yun-Seong and Seong-Mina against the wall beside Hwang and the six stopped their fighting and ran for their life. "Why do you always have to show up at the worst moments Sorel?" shouted Zasalamel.

Raphael poked his head out of the blob and said, "It's not like I wanted to, gasp, you idiot! I-" But the blob sucked him back in again and squished its way past the three still knocked out Koreans to chase after Zasalamel, Kilik, Maxi, Yoshimitsu, Xianghua and Setsuka.

But their way was blocked when they slammed into Siegfried, Nightmare, Rock, Hilde and Cassandra and everyone fell to the ground. "What in the world are you guys running from!" shouted Maxi as he scrambled back to his feet to continue running away from the red blob monster.

"Don't go that way! Tira's crazy machine is coming! We've got to head the other way!" shouted Hilde as she prepared to run in the opposite direction.

Setsuka shook her head frantically and said, "There's a crazy red monster that way!"

It was pretty much a dead end and everyone looked back and forth and began to panic. Finally, Zasalamel had enough and he punched the wall. To everyone's surprise, the wall crumbled and everyone scrambled through it and into ballroom. Everyone then split up from there and ran their separate ways because everyone was feeling –it's every man/woman for themselves-feel right now.

* * *

><p>Back at the hallway, Tira's transformer and the red monsters were heading toward each other dangerously fast. Raphael, Amy, Talim, and Ivy would've screamed but they didn't want to swallow any of the red stuff they were stuck in. Tira and Sophitia stopped fighting each other for a second and looked at the incoming disaster. "Maybe we should agree that it would be best if we take that thing out before we resume fighting," Sophitia murmured quietly.<p>

"Well, as long as I can hurt someone then I'm happy," shrugged Tira.

"Wait! My teammates are in there!" shouted Sophitia as she noticed Raphael, Amy, Talim and Ivy inside the jelly like monster.

"I don't care." Tira punched a button on the control panel and the robot fired two rocket punches at the monster.

It exploded in a shower of red pieces and the people inside it were freed and they sucked in the air gratefully. But Ivy was blasted out the window far far away and out of the trial. Luckily, she landed into a bounce house and the kids jumping around in there screamed at the skimpy adult woman that just dropped from the sky. One of the kid called out to her parents and said, "Mommy! Daddy! Some strange lady who's wearing weird clothes just dropped from the sky!"

"Oh my goodness! It's Ivy!" cried her father.

"I need to get out of here and get some coffee…" groaned Ivy as she stood up. But her spiky high heels stabbed the bounce house and the air quickly rushed out of the thing. All of the kids began crying because they couldn't jump in the deflated bounce house anymore. The kids started pulling on her arms or tugging on her legs and they told her to 'fix it' or they would tell their parents on her. She sighed and looked at the haunted house from far away. Now that she was outside, she could see the night field covering the haunted mansion. "I hope those guys will make it out of there in better shape than me…"

* * *

><p>"Ahhh… It was a good thing I ditched Cervantes. It's finally quiet around here," Voldo thought to himself happily as he sipped some tea in his secret room that nobody knows about. When they arrived at the haunted mansion, everyone on his team was too distracted with Lizardman hysterics to notice him exploring the house. To his immense luck, he found this secret hidden bedroom on the third floor that can be accessed by moving a scary portrait of some a lady dressed in red sitting in the rain. So when Zasalamel asked which room he wanted, he merely replied that he would sleep in the living room or wherever. Zasalamel shrugged and continued asking the rest of the team about which room they wanted. Voldo placed the teacup on his bedside table and sat on the bed for awhile. "I'll go search for the rest of them after a short rest," Voldo decided as he laid down for a short nap.<p>

* * *

><p>Meanwhile…<p>

"Where did Voldo go?" Cervantes wondered as he roamed around the house. As he turned around a corner, he noticed a weird machine thing collapsed on the floor and Tira was tied with thick ropes. Her violet eyes lit up when she noticed the pirate. "Cervantes! Get your butt over here and untie me at once!"

"I don't take orders from anyone! Especially from a little crazy girl who doesn't respect her elders!"

Tira whistled shrilly and a bunch of ravens flew through the window that Ivy broke. They cawed and attacked the pirate and after a few minutes Cervantes was finally convinced in untying Tira. "So, who did that to you anyway?" grumbled Cervantes.

Tira cracked her knuckles and said, "When I find Sophitia, Talim, Amy and Raphael…. They're so going to get it." And a scary lightning bolt (projected by Algol's group) flashed outside.

Cervantes gulped nervously and pulled his hat over his eyes as he followed Tira in her search for revenge.

* * *

><p>Status of the Soul Calibur crew,their rooms and points…<p>

Room 1-Raphael

Room 2-Zasalamel

Room 3-Amy

Room4-Lizardman (missing and whereabouts is unknown) 10 points

Room 5-Siegfried

Room 6-Nightamre

Room 7-Hilde

Room 8-Tira

Room 9-Setsuka

Room 10-Mitsurugi (hospitalized and is getting his stomach pumped) 10 points

Room 11-Maxi

Room12- Rock

Room 13-Kilik

Room 14-Xianghua

Room 15-Ivy (launched out of a window and out of the trial) 10 points

Room 16-Cervantes

Room 17-Yoshimitsu

Room 18-Taki

Room 19-Sophitia

Room 20-Hwang

Room 21-Cassandra

Room 22-Seong-Mina

Room 23-Talim

Room 24-Yun-Seong

Mystery Room-Voldo

* * *

><p>Darkwings13: I'll admit that I'm a complete wimp when it comes to haunted houses and horror movies. My best friend let me hold his hand so that I can close my eyes and he would lead me to the end of the haunted house. I sneaked a peek after two minutes and I ran out of there screaming. It was so embarrassing but I can totally relate myself to Talim in this chapter where she used Raphael's cape to cover her eyes. I'll bet you guys didn't notice in the previous chapter that Voldo didn't have a room. Except for diegofu (thanks for the review and of course I thank everyone else who reviewed as well). But what kind of secret will this mysterious room hold? Who will be the next to be eliminated from the trial? Find out in the next chapter my dear readers. Oh, I'm sorry for taking so long to upload. Just a side note but it's my birthday today ^^.<p> 


	16. Monsters of the Mansion

Running around a corner, Xianghua slammed into Kilik and the two crashed to the floor. Standing up, he ran over to help his girlfriend stand up but Xianghua slapped his hand away angrily. "Don't think that I forgot about the fact that you attacked us back there Kilik. I'm still very angry."

Kilik kneeled down beside her and sighed. "I'm sorry Xianghua. But what can you expect when we're on opposite sides?"

"I can tell you that I do not expect my boyfriend to attack me."

"But I attacked Zasalamel! And I even got bodyslammed for it!"

Xianghua giggled and she had to admit that it did look pretty painful when that happened. "Fine. I'll forgive you for now. But what are we going to do now? After all, we're still on the opposite sides."

Thinking hard, Kilik shrugged and helped her stand up. "Why don't we just stick together and try to survive till the end of this trial for now."

She wrapped her arm around his arm and nodded happily. "I like that idea."

* * *

><p>Outside in the gardens, three people were taking refuge in the storage shedshack. Cassandra was huddling behind some dusty shelves and she squealed when a rat ran past her. Beside her, Hilde threw some hedge clippers at the thing and moved alittle closer to her friend. "Do the gardeners have no honor? This place is horrendously filthy!"

Sitting behind her, Maxi stared at a spider that was slowly descending toward him head. "Don't touch the hair. Don't touch the hair. Don't touch the hair."

Hilde rolled her eyes and batted the thing away from him. "You would not survive one day in my army Maxi."

"What should we do guys? I mean, we're not going to stay in this here forever are we?" Cassandra asked as she looked around the dirty and decrepit room.

Hilde pondered about their situation for a moment before replying. "In cases such as this, we have two options. Wait for someone to find us or we could leave and look for them ourselves. However, option A would be a better one since there's less risk for us if we stay here."

"What if one of the guy from Team Draw or some monsters find us?" Maxi pointed out. "Then we would be in really big trouble dude. I mean Hilde."

Two minutes later...

"Push for your honor Maxi!" shouted Hilde as she and Cassandra shoved another crate forward to barricade the door. Once this place was secure, they could just boost either Cassandra or her onto Maxi's shoulders and look out the small window to see whoever was approaching. If it was one of their own teamates, they would join up with them and leave this storage place. If it was something else, they would stay inside where it was safe.

With a grunt, Maxi shoved another heavy crate forward and their storage shed containing gardening tools and random crates was completely fortified.

* * *

><p>Another group had the same idea as Hilde and they were barricading the basement. Well... All they had to do was have Rock sit in front of the door and the place was essentially unbreakable. Unless someone chainsaw through the door but there was a slim chance that would happen. Zasalamel was pacing back and forth and trying to see the future but he could see nothing. Nightmare and Rock were trying to solve a crossword puzzle to pass the time. "Hey Zasalalem, do you know a word that means the same thing as scared, but is only four letters long and ends in an 'r'?"<p>

Zasalamel didn't even look at them as he replied. "Fear."

Rock scribbled in the word and grinned. "Thanks man."

"Now let me ask you a question. Did you guys scribbled a giant crossword puzzle on the wall or is it my imagination that it suddenly appeared on there," Zasalamel asked quietly as he walked up to the wall. A single light-bulb lent enough light for him to make out the words.

Nightmare walked over as well but he leapt backward when more writings appear on the wall. "That doesn't look good." The writings on the wall said...

_Welcome to my favorite room in the mansion gentleman_ ("His favorite room is the basement?" Rock said incredously). _This is the room where I spent hours and hours solving the world's hardest crossword puzzles_ ("What a great life," Nightmare murmured sarcastically)._ However, when I was about to break my record of solving five hundred crosswords puzzle in three days, my wife finally had enough and she sent a mad axe man to chop down the door and get me out of here to spend some time with her since it was our anniversary_ ("No duh," thought Zasalamel). _However, the axe man, like I said, was mad. So he ended up killing me by accident ( _they stared at the wall with wide eyes_). You three gentlemen are in grave danger. In three days, it shall be my anniversary once again and the mad axe man will come to kill whoever is in this room_ (Rock stood up and began pulling on the door but it wouldn't open). _If you want to live, you'l need to solve 500 crosswords puzzles before time runs out. The puzzles are in that box over there and the bathroom is to your right. The crossword puzzle on the wall is the last one you'll need to solve for the door to open. Good luck._

"Ouch! What did you do that for?"screamed Nightmare since Zasalamel pinched him.

"I just wanted to make sure that we're not dreaming." Zasalamel strolled over to the box, opened it and grabbed a sheet of crossword puzzles out. "Since we're not dreaming, we had better get a move on these things before that mad axe man comes. Now, what starts with an D, ends in a m and is four letters long?"

Rock looked at him for a bit before saying, "Doom."

* * *

><p>Walking down a dark hallway on the first floor, Raphael turned back to see that Sophitia, Talim and Amy were clearly quite tired from everything that had happened so far. The fight was Tira's robot was rather exhausting and they only managed to win because Amy pulled the power cord out of the stupid machine. "Why don't we take a break for awhile. It's getting quite late and I suppose we can head to bed early."<p>

"I don't think our bedrooms would be a safe place to go. Knowing Tira, she probably set that place up with traps to get her revenge," Sophitia stated knowledgeably.

Amy walked forward and pushed open a door. "I don't think she'll expect us to sleep in the billiards room."

They walked into the room with caution and when they were sure that nothing would pop out and kill them, they settled themselves comfortably around the room. Talim crawled on top of the middle billiard table and she used her hat as a makeshift pillow. "Good night wind. Goodnight everyone."

Amy and Sophitia took the billiard tables beside her, one on the left and one on the right and said good night to her as well. Raphael had to sleep in front of the door so that no one would be able to sneak up on them even though the door was locked. Of course, it'll come at the cost of the door hitting his head if someone tried to force their way in but for his daughter's safety, Raphael had agreed to it.

* * *

><p>"Tira, it's getting late so can we go to sleep already?" asked Cervantes. He and Tira were hiding behind a big statue of a gargoyle near the hallway to everyone's bedrooms. They had set about a million traps down that way and were waiting for someone to fall for them. Namely, Raphael, Amy, Talim and Sophitia. The pirate was getting rather annoyed at the fact that he was about ten steps away from his bedroom and yet he can't go and sleep in it.<p>

Tira shushed him and continued waiting. When Cervantes was sure that she she was looking, he used his ghostly powers to ditch her and get some sleep in his bedroom. Tira didn't even bat an eye when she heard him howl and stomped out of his room angrily. "Why in the world did you flood my floor with pointy tacks!" screamed the pirate as he held up his boot.

Long and pointy tacks were stuck in it and Tira was pretty sure that some of them penetrated into his foot. She shrugged and resumed waiting for someone else besides Cervantes to fall for the traps. "At least you didn't telelport into your bathroom. Besides, that's what you get for ditching me. Now shut up before someone hears you."

Another hour passed by and Cervantes had finally managed to extract the last tack out of his foot when suddenly, they heard someone scream. Tira perked up and ran to the bobby-trapped hallway to see who had fell for them. But her expression turned sour when she realized who it was. "Oh, it's just you guys."

"What in the world do you mean it's just you guys!" screamed Seong-Mina, Hwang and Yun-Seong. They were hanging upside down from the ceiling by their legs and splattered from head to toe in tomato juice.

Tilting her head, Tira observed them for a moment before saying, "I thought there was another part to this trap." The wall behind her open and Tira snapped her fingers. "Oh yeah! It's the ironer in the pie trick!" She ducked just in time as the three pies containing heavy hand ironers soar through the air and clunked the three on the heads.

The rope holding them snapped and the floor opened up. Yun-Seong, Seong-Mina and Hwang fell through the hole and the floor boards closed up once again to get ready for the next victims. Cervantes hobbled over to Tira and said in a sarcastic tone of voice, "Nice going."

Tira glared at him before whipping out a remote controller and pushing the big red button on it. A hole opened up in the wall and a red giant boxing fist came out and punched the pirate so hard he lost a few tooth and knocked him out cold. "Have fun sleeping Cervantes." As Tira walked away, she made sure to tread on his fingers slowly before heading into her own room.

* * *

><p>As they fell through the floor, they landed in the billiard room which was right underneath. So Seong-Mina slammed into Sophitia, Hwang crushed Amy and Yun-Seong squashed Talim. It's quite obvious that the three woke up and began screaming in very loud and high pitch voices. "Father! There's a man on top of me!"<p>

Raphael snored some more before saying, "You're dreaming. Go back to slee- Hold on a minute princess! Don't worry, Daddy's coming!" He quickly leapt to his feet,flicked on the lights (which were still red) and grabbed the closest thing to use as a weapon. A brand new cue stick(the thing you hit the pool balls with) and he began whacking Hwang on the head with it. "Get off my daughter if you know what's good for you!"

"Ouch! Oww! I'm sorry! This is- ow! A big misunderstanding! I'm not a pedophile!" cried Hwang as he ran away from the really furious vampire. The two ran around in continuous circles and every once in awhile, Raphael's cue stick would connect with Hwang's head.

Pushing Yun-Seong off her, Talim screamed since she couldn't recognize him because he was covered in red tomato juice. Due to the fact that she was already quite scared and rudely woken up in such a dramatic manner, her imagination went wild and to her eyes, Yun-Seong looked really scary indeed. In self-defense, she ran over to the ball rack and started chucking the pool balls at him. "Get away from me you monster!"

"No Tal! Ouch! It's me! Ow! Ow!"

After disentangling herself from Seong-Mina, Sophitia rolled her eyes and said, "Can't you people give us a few hours of rest?"

Crossing her arms, Seong-Mina said, "You can blame Tira for this. All I wanted to do was go back to my bedroom and get some sleep but she bobby-trapped the entire hallway."

"Just like I thought," replied Sophitia as she turned to to call out to the rest of her teamates. "Hey guys! It's ok! It's just Hwang, Seong-Mina and Yun-Seong!"

"What do you mean it's alright!" They're the enemies! They've just tried to sneak attack us!" Raphael retorted as he and Hwang fought over the cue stick and the two were tugging it back and forth. "I'm kicking them out of this room and that's final!"

He grabbed onto the three Koreans, opened the door and shoved them out. "And stay out!" With a final glare, he slammed the door and locked it.

Just the, a really big guy wearing a back ski mask holding an axe appeared and started walking toward them. The three began pounding frantically on the door. "Raphael! Let us in!" screamed Seong-Mina. "There's a crazy axe guy out here!"

"I don't care! Just shut up so I can go back and get some beauty sleep!"

Yun-Seong pulled on the doorknob in panic and yelled, "Talim! You can' let me die like this! I'm your friend!"

Inside the room, Talim knew that she couldn't leave them out there with a crazy axe guy so she said, "I'm coming Yun-Seong! Hold on!"

But Raphael stood in front of the door and blocked it with his body. "You're not helping anyone Talim. If that axe guy gets them, then Zasalamel's team would lose another three members and we'll be victorious for sure."

"I don't want to win if it means that my friends have to die!" argued Talim as she stomped her foot.

Sophitia walked over to the to of them and said, "I think it's ok if we let them stay here for a few minutes until the axe guys goes away."

"No, I'm not budging from this door and I'm not letting them come in." He continued to block the door stubbornly while the screams outside increased.

Talim grabbed the cue stick beside the door and pointed it at him threateningly. Raphael's eyes widened and Amy and Sophitia's mouths dropped open in surprise. "You're going to hit me with that thing! You're betraying the team?"

"No I'm not. I'm just going to go out there and save my friends! Now please move Raphael."

Sophitia gasped and said, "But you can't Talim. You won't be able to stand a chance against that axe guy. It's his axe vs your cue stick!"

"And your wind powers aren't working," added Amy.

Raphael raised his hand up in exasperation. "Fine! Go out there for all I care. It's the second day and the team will be awarded twenty points if you fall so my team will still be ahead."

Talim hugged Sophitia and as she walked past Raphael, her eyes tear up because he what he said was mean. Raphael pretended not to notice as he step aside and Talim left the room. The door slammed shut behind her and Yun-Seong said, "Talim! What are you doing out here?"

"I'm going to fight with you guys."

Seong-Mina arched an eyebrow. "No offense Talim but we don't plan on figting that guy. We plan on living."

Hwang gulped. "Maybe we should run now."

They turned to see the axe guy looking at them. Talim swallowed nervously and did the bravest thing she had ever done on her entire young life. She poked the guy in the eye with the cue stick and shouted,"Now we run for our lives!"

The axe dude watched the four run off and he touched his red eye gingerly. All he cared about was the people in the basement. Of course they had three days so he was free to wander the house until then. With a grunt, he walked away.

Inside the room, Amy and Sophitia resumed sleeping and Raphael crawled onto the remaining empty table and sighed. The priestess had forgotten her hat.

* * *

><p>Stepping into the living room, Siegfried and Setsuka gasped and turned away. "Disgusting!" exclaimed Setsuka.<p>

Kilik and Xianghua were in the middle of sharing a roasted marshmallow by the fireplace and they frowned at her. "What?"

Pointing an accusing finger at Kilik, Siegfried said, "You're fraternizing with the enemy! You should be ashamed of yourself! I cannot forgive you for that."

"How can you say that! You have a girlfriend as well! I thought you would understand!" retorted Kilik.

"But she's on the same side as me!"

Xianghua glanced at him and held out a bag of marshmallows. "Want one?"

The distraction worked and Siegfried was soon 'fraternizing' with the enemy as well. Setsuka supposed that they could sacrifice Xianghua if something ever came up so she walked over to the old couch and laid down to get some sleep. After stuffing themselves with marshmallows, Xianghua walked over to the second couch and fell asleep as well. Siegfried and Kilik made themselves comfortable on the floor and drifted off into lalala land.

* * *

><p>"Shshs," said Voldo as he examined himself in front of a floor length mirror inside the secret room. It was a miracle the mirror didn't crack since he had applied a thick layer of maek-up on his face and was wearing a long and very revealing red dress. The dress would've looked pretty good on a woman but right now, it just made Voldo look like he was failing at cross-dressing. To his immense bad luck, the room was haunted and he was now possessed. Team Draw doesn't seem to be getting along very well with these supernatural beings.<p>

But anyway, the translator translated what Voldo just said. "Mirror mirror on the wall. Who's the fairest one of all?"

The mirror answered by breaking into a million pieces. Voldo sighed. "Shshshs."

"This body will have to do for now. Once I look around the house for a better one, I'm so ditching this one." Voldo walked over to a calendar hanging on the wallk and smiled. "Shshsshsh!"

"Ahh, it's only three more days until my anniversary again. I can't wait!" said the translator.

* * *

><p>Rubbing his eyes tiredly, Zasalamel finished his tenth crossword puzzle in the past two hours and reached for another one. "Zasalamel, can we take a break? I"m so tired!" whined Nightmare.<p>

"No."

Rock began complaining as well. "Physically, I can take on a dozen bears but right now, my brain is exhausted. Can we have a few hours of shuteye?"

"No."

"I'll triple my efforts for tomorrow," bargained Rock.

"No."

"Can I at least go to the bathroom?" asked Nightmare.

Zasalamel thought about it for a second before he finally consented. "Fine. But make it quick."

"What if it's number two?"

"Just shut up and go!" Zasalamel rolled his eyes and continued on his crossword puzzle as Nightmare walked over to the bathroom.

Two hours later...

"Nightmare! What in the world are you doing in there?" shouted Zaslamel as he pounded on the door.

Beside him, Rock was trying to hold_ it_ in since he really needed to go as well. "Hurry up Nightmare! I really need to go!"

No one answered and Rock finally had enough. Letting out a loud battle cry, he kicked the door open. Zasalamel and Rock peeked inside and their blood pressure soared upward. Nightmare was sleeping in the bathtub and he looked at them with groggy eyes. "Is it morning already?"

They threw him out of the bathroom and dumped a pile of crossword puzzles on him.

* * *

><p>"Hey, will someone keep it down? I'm trying to get some sleep here," mumbled Hilde as she tried to block out the incessant knocking and go back to sleep.<p>

"OPEN THE DOOR! IF I DIE FOR THIS, I'LL HAUNT THOU FOR THE REST OF THY LIFE! AUGHHHH!"

Maxi, Cassandra and Hilde sat up and their-this is really bad and we might die in the next few hours- senses were tingling. Hilde pushed Maxi over to the window and she helped him boost Cassandra onto his shoulders. When the greek girl was sort of balanaced on his shoulders, she peeked out the window and screamed. "Oh my god! Zombies are dragging Yoshimitsu into their graves! In the pumpkin patch?" True to her words, the zombies moaned and dragged him over to the pumpkin patch and they sunk into the ground.

"What?" cried Hilde and Maxi.

"And now they're trying to break into our storage shed!"About twenty zombies were gathering around their storage shed and were banging on the door with their nasty rotting arms.

"WHAT!"

Jumping off Maxi's shoulders, the three piled on more gardening junk near the door to barricade themselves. For some strange reason, there was a flamethrower in there and in the worst case scenario, they would push one of the crates near the window, leap out, and try to burn their way through the hungry undead if those things did manage to break through.

* * *

><p>Status of the Soul Calibur crew,their rooms and points…<p>

Room 1-Raphael

Room 2-Zasalamel

Room 3-Amy

Room4-Lizardman (missing and whereabouts is unknown) 10 points

Room 5-Siegfried

Room 6-Nightamre

Room 7-Hilde

Room 8-Tira

Room 9-Setsuka

Room 10-Mitsurugi (hospitalized and is getting his stomach pumped) 10 points

Room 11-Maxi

Room12- Rock

Room 13-Kilik

Room 14-Xianghua

Room 15-Ivy (launched out of a window and out of the trial) 10 points

Room 16-Cervantes

Room 17-Yoshimitsu (taken by zombies) 20 points

Room 18-Taki

Room 19-Sophitia

Room 20-Hwang

Room 21-Cassandra

Room 22-Seong-Mina

Room 23-Talim

Room 24-Yun-Seong

Mystery Room-Voldo

* * *

><p>Darkwings13: This is really one wacky haunted mansion. Algol and his team are doing a pretty good job right? Anyway, I promise you guys that the next chapter will be extra long. Thanks for all the great reviews, fav and lastly, for reading of course. See you all next time. ^^<p> 


	17. Operation PAST

The next morning (But it was still dark out due to the night field still being activated)…

Opening his eyes slowly, Kilik thought he must be having a nightmare where Voldo was wearing a red dress, red high heels, and really bad make-up. And the guy's face was inches from his own and he could smell the bad morning breath. Kilik blinked a few times before realizing that he wasn't dreaming. "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Setsuka and Xianghua woke up and they fell off their couches. When they saw Voldo, they screamed as well. "Voldo! What in the world is wrong with you?" Xianghua could not bear to look at him and she covered her eyes.

All the screaming didn't wake up Siegfried so Setsuka had to slap him awake instead. "Siegfried! Wake up! Wake up!"

"Ouch! Will you stop-ow! Stop it! I'm awake! I'm awake!" The four jumped behind the couch and peeked out at Voldo. Siegfried rubbed his red cheeks and whispered, "What's wrong with him?"

"As if we would know," replied Kilik. "When I woke up, that thing was hovering over me!"

Xianghua poked Kilik and said, "Don't call him a thing! I'm sure there's a perfectly good reason why he's dressed like that."

"Or maybe... he wanted to scare us out of this house!" Setsuka looked at Xianghua coldly. "Maybe you are involved in this as well."

Defending his girlfriend, Kilik said, "Please calm down Setsuka. I'm sure Xianghua had nothing to do with it."

"She's on the other side! How can you be so sure?" snapped Setsuka.

"Fine! I'll prove myself by talking to Voldo."

Kilik quickly turned to look at her. "You can't do that Xianghua! What if he's dangerous?"

"He's my teammate. He won't hurt me." Xianghua shook Kilik's hand off her and she came out from behind the couch. Walking toward Voldo slowly, she waved at him nervously. "Hey Voldo. It's me, Xianghua. What's up?"

Voldo didn't answer and he merely continued staring at her. She smiled at him hesitantly before saying, "Hey Voldo, why don't you turn on the light so we can see that lovely… dress you're wearing."

Reaching over, Voldo flicked on the switch and the red lights came back on. And then… "Shshs."

"You look much better than this guy," translated the translator.

"Huh?" Xianghua looked at him with a puzzled expression but then the room became covered in smoke and the ghost lady switched over to Xianghua's body. The Chinese girl struggled against the spirit but she knew it was no use so she yelled, "Kilik! Get out of here! Hurry!"

"I'm not leaving you Xianghua!" cried Kilik as he leapt out from behind the couch but then Setsuka knocked him out with a vase.

"Sorry Kilik, but this is for the best." She and Siegfried helped carry him out of there and when she passed by Xianghua who was still struggling with the ghost, she said, "I'm sorry for doubting you Xianghua!"

"Just get Kilik out of here and I'll forgive you!"

With the ghost gone from Voldo's body, he felt a deep sense of guilt for involving Xianghua in this. Why did he have to find that stupid secret room in the first place! "Shshs!"

"I'm so sorry Xianghua!" translated the translator. He watched helplessly as the ghost took over Xianghua's body.

The ghost Xianghua smiled down at him. "Don't worry. I'll let your friend go once my anniversary is over. All you have to do is help me prepare for it and if it goes well, I'll leave your friend alone and go back to my grave."

"Shsh? (When is your anniversary happening)?"

"In two days." The ghost Xianghua skipped merrily away and said, "Come on let's go. We have a very busy schedule ahead of us!"

Determined to free Xianghua, Voldo would do his best to make this the most amazing anniversary ever so that the ghost would leave his friend. He followed her out of the room but then he tripped over the long dress and he just realized that he was wearing really uncomfortable red high heels. "Sshshhhss? (Can I go change first)?"

* * *

><p>The moaning and banging had stopped and Hilde, Maxi and Cassandra looked at each other. "Do you think they're gone?" asked Cassandra.<p>

Hilde held the flamethrower and said, "Only one way to find out. Maxi, get your butt over there and check if the coast's clear."

"Whatever you say boss." Maxi climbed onto the crate and peeked out the window. "Hey, I think they're gone!"

Cassandra perked up and let out a sigh of relief. "That's good to hear."

But Hilde sat on the floor thoughtfully and she grabbed a watering can. "Open the window and throw it outside and make sure they're really gone. We can't risk going out there without being 100% sure that the garden is really safe."

Unlocking the rusty lock on the window, Maxi opened it and tossed the watering can out. The zombies popped out of the ground like bugs and they dragged the poor watering can down with them. "Uh… I don't think we can leave yet."

* * *

><p>Slamming into another mirror, Taki suppressed the urge to scream. Because that would not be very ninja like and she knew that the people who were watching Soul Clash would see that. She was currently in the room of mirrors and she had been stuck inside the stupid room for the past ten hours. On the bright side, she had managed to get a few hours of sleep. On the not so bright side, she really needed to use the bathroom. She held out her arms and continued navigating through the room. There wasn't much red light and Taki thought that maybe it was time she just smashed her way through and risk getting some cuts when suddenly, she spotted Xianghua and Voldo. Well, there was like a hundred reflections of them and she wasn't sure which reflection was the real one but this was a good sign so far. "Voldo! Xianghua! Guys! I'm over here!"<p>

Five of Voldo's reflection turned to look at her. "Shshs (Taki! What are you doing here)?"

"I should ask you the same thing! But that's not important, do you know the exit?"

Voldo turned to Xianghua and said, "Hshshshssh (Can you help my friend get out of there)?"

Ghost Xianghua glanced over at the ninja slowly. "Why should I?"

"Hssshs (She'll help you with your anniversary plans. I'm not one to brag but she's a master when it comes to fashion. I'm sure she'll pick out the perfect outfit for you or something)."

Thinking about it for a moment, the ghost sighed and said, "Fine."

* * *

><p>Talim, Yun-Seong, Seong-Mina and Hwang trudged upstairs to their room tiredly and all four could not wait to get into bed and catch some zzzzzz's. They had stayed awake all night to make sure that the axe guy couldn't ambushcatch/ or kill them and now, they felt like they were going to keel over. But as they walked into the hallway, Seong-Mina tripped over a piece of string and the trap Tira set up was activated once again. "Darn it! I forgot that Tira bobby-trapped this entire hallway!" moaned Seong-Mina.

"Watch out Talim!" Yun-Seong pushed her out of the way as the floor beneath them opened and the three fell down the hole once again. But before the floorboards closed, he saw Tira exiting her room.

Running over to the floorboards, Talim pounded on them frantically. "Don't worry guys! I'll save you!" She tried to pry them open but then two big shadows loomed over her. Looking slowly upward, her eyes widened in fear.

Tira (in her jolly side) grinned and waved. "Good morning Tal-tal. I'm so glad to see you."

Beside her, Cervantes smiled wickedly. "It looks like Raphael's team is about to lose another member."

Talim gulped nervously. Summoning her courage, she poked Cervantes in the eye with her cue stick. The pirate screamed in pain and stumbled into Tira and they fell to the ground. Seizing her chance, Talim ran for it. "I'm really sorry Cervantes! I hope your eye gets better!"

"Get back here wench!" And the pirate began chasing after her with Tira following closely behind him.

* * *

><p>Falling down toward the billiards room once again, Seong-Mina dropped down on Sophitia, Hwang crushed Amy and Yun-Seong flattened Raphael. "What is wrong with you people!" roared the vampire as he shoved Yun-Seong off him. "Can't you people go bother someone else?"<p>

"For once, I agree with my dad." Amy hit Hwang with a cue stick and pushed him away from her. "I'm in a really bad mood so if you know what's good for you, get out right now."

Sophitia glanced at the three with a puzzled expression on her face. "Why are there only three of you? I thought Talim went with you guys?"

Yun-Seong slapped himself on the forehead. "Oh yeah!"

Amy arched an eyebrow at him. "What do you mean oh yeah? She ditched the safety of this room to help you guys and you managed to lose her?"

Walking over to Yun-Seong, Seong-Mina said, "We sort of got separated when we fell for one of Tira's traps again. Yun-Seong pushed her away from the traphole as it opened up so I think she should be ok."

Amy shook her head. "Are you serious? She's scared of her own shadow in this place. There's no way she'll be ok."

"And when I fell down the hole, I noticed Tira coming out of her room," Yun-Seong mumbled quietly.

Sophitia gasped at what he said and she put a hand over her heart. "No! Who knows what Tira would do to our poor Talim if she caught her. We have to go save her!"

"Humph, she chose to go and save those idiots," Raphael gestured to the three Koreans. "Why should we help her?"

"Because she's on our team," said Amy.

"And didn't her grandmother tell you to babysit her?" Sophitia reminded him.

Raphael's eyes widened as he remembered that rather important detail. _If anything else happens to my sweet granddaughter, I'll send a twister your way every day, every month and every year for the rest of your life. _That one line from the letter flashed through his brain in neon colors and Raphael broke out in a cold sweat. "Ok guys, it looks like we're commencing operation PAST."

"What in the world does that stand for?" asked Hwang.

"Panic And Save Talim," replied Raphael as he grabbed Talim's hat that was still on the table, popped it into his pocket, run over to the door, flung it open and rushed out.

"Why do we have to panic?" asked Yun-Seong as he followed after Raphael.

"Because if something happens to her, then I'm going to panic (and fear for my life)!"

* * *

><p>"I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!" roared Rock as he threw aside his twentieth crossword puzzle.<p>

Nightmare caught it in midair and looked at it. "I think he's really losing it Zasalamel. He's written nothing but Bangoo on here."

A small and neat pile of finished crossword puzzle sat beside Zasalamel and he added his fourtieth crossword puzzle onto the pile. "Tell him to go to the bathroom and wash his face. I'm sure it'll help."

Nightmare looked over at Rock who was banging his head on the door. "Are you sure about that?"

Zasalamel sighed. "If only we had some music, maybe it wouldn't be so bad."

They suddenly heard music playing from far away and the three rushed over to put their ears to the door. "Why is someone playing the piano at this time?" wondered Zaslamel. "And it's Fur Elise by Beethoven!"

* * *

><p>In the large dining room, Taki and Voldo had pushed a large and very grand (not to mention heavy) piano in there. Voldo had explained the situation to Taki and since none of her spirit sealing abilities was working, they had no choice but to prepare for the ghost's upcoming anniversary. Voldo was playing the piano to let the ghost decide which one she would want him to play for the anniversary. Meanwhile, Taki was looking for the right cutleries and other dining goods that would set the mood for a romantic dinner. Ghost Xianghua sat in a dining chair and nodded. "Very good Voldo. You have very fine taste in music."<p>

"Hsgs (thanks, I guess)."

Taki held up two different colored plates. "Do you want coral pink plates, or blushing red?"

Just then, Talim ran past the open dining room. Cervantes and Tira ran past a few seconds later but Tira paused and looked at Taki. "What are you guys doing?"

"Picking out dinner plates….?" Taki replied slowly. It would take too long to explain so Taki just stuck to that short response.

Tira peered at her and said, "I would pick the coral pink plates."

Leaping off the chair, ghost Xianghua clapped her hands together and giggled. "I was just thinking the same thing! And by the way, I love your outfit!"

Tira looked down at her first Soul Calibur outfit from Soul Calibur 4 and giggled as well. "Thanks Hua-hua (Tira's nickname for Xianghua). Wow, you seem kinda different today!" Tira skipped over and started talking to her while Voldo and Taki looked at each other and they wondered if they should explain the situation to Tira.

Suddenly, Raphael, Sophitia, Amy, Yun-Seong, Seong-Mina and Hwang ran past. Seong-Mina stopped and said, "huff… Tira… why are you here?"

"Why can't I be here?"

"I thought you were chasing after Talim."

"Nope, Cervy beard(Tira's nickname for Cervantes) is after her. I'd rather hang out with Hua-hua right now."

Seong-Mina took in a few deep breaths and nodded thanks. She ran after Raphael and relayed the new information. "Huff… It looks like… Cervantes is after Talim… right now… Tira's busy with other things."

Raphael wiped away some beads of sweat on his forehead and nodded. But then Sophitia cried, "We've got to hurry guys! He's catching up to her!"

"Leave it to us! We've been around that area before and we know a shortcut!" shouted Yun-Seong as he, Hwang and Mina speeded up and ran the other way. "We'll guide Cervantes away from her! You three just make sure that Tal doesn't run into any other troubles!"

"Got it!" And Raphael, Amy and Sophitia resumed chasing after Talim.

* * *

><p>Dashing to another corridor, Talim looked at the three different hallways and stopped. "Wind, which one should I choose?" Her hand tightened nervously around her cue stick and her heart thumped loudly in her chest.<p>

But then Yun-Seong, Seong-Mina and Hwang appeared from around the corner and they pointed to the one on the right. "Go that way Tal! Hurry! We'll distract Cervantes so just go!

"But-but-"

"No buts! Just go Tal!"

"Ill buy you that Spiderman comic after this Yun-Seong! Thank you guys so much!" And she dashed off into the right hallway.

Cervantes showed up and when he saw the three Koreans he snapped, "Did you see that priestess run past here?"

Seong-Mina feigned interest and looked at him with wide eyes. "Yeah! I saw her go down that way!" She pointed at the left hallway. "You should hurry up if you want to catch her!"

Cervantes growled and ran off into the left hallway and thirty seconds later, Raphael's group showed up. "huff.. Which… gasp… way?" panted Raphael as he sucked in a lungful of air.

Hwang pointed to the right one and when they ran off, they wished them a loud "Good luck! Take good care of Talim ok!"

As they turned around to rejoin the group so that they wouldn't look to suspicious, the crazy axe guy showed up. "Are you serious?" moaned Yun-Seong as he looked upward at the tall man. His face only came up to the guy's chest.

"I really hate this place," groaned Seong-Mina. The three stared at the guy for a moment before screaming, "SOMEBODY! HELP!" And they dashed down the middle hallway.

The axe guy lumbered after them because he was totally lost.

* * *

><p>Carrying the unconscious Kilik on his back, Siegfried gasped for breath. "Where are we running off to anyway?"<p>

Setsuka looked around the deserted hallway and frowned. She had never been through this way yet so she had no idea where to go. The night sky outside was gloomy and the moon was glowed with a pale white radiance (it was a very realistic night field). Suddenly, she spotted Talim and felt relieved to finally run into another team member. "Talim! Over here!"

Relief surged through Talim as well and she rushed over. "Setsuka! Siegfried! Kilik! I'm so glad to- EEEKKK!"

The floor underneath Talim suddenly popped up and launched the priestess out the window. It would seem that this was one of the traps Algol had mentioned about. But her cue stick hit the window changed the direction of her flight and she landed on the storage shed instead. She slid down the slippery roof but she quickly grabbed onto the side of the roof and dangled there precariously. "Somebody! Help! Wahhh!" Her cue stick dropped to the ground and rolled to a stop a long distance away.

The impact made the zombies popped out of the ground and they gathered around the shed again. Some began reaching for Talim's legs but lucky for her, she was the shortest female in Soul Calibur so her legs weren't very long. But Talim shrieked and held on even tighter to the side of the roof. Hilde, Maxi and Cassandra nearly had a heart attack when Talim landed on their storage shed and Cassandra clambered onto the crate and looked out the window to see a bunch of zombies swarming around the shed reaching up for something. Opening the window, she saw Talim and her mouth dropped open. "Talim? How did you get up there?"

"The floorboards in the mansion catapulted me out and I landed on here. Cassandra! Help me!"

Hilde heard what had happened and she said, "Hold on soldier! Cassandra, you and me will try to pull her through the window. Maxi, you'll back us up alright?"

"Got it." Grabbing a gardening hoe, Maxi stood beside Cassandra and swiped at the hungry zombies.

Hilde climbed on the crate as well and she reached over to the left for Talim's legs. "Talim, swing your legs over here!"

With a grunt, Talim swung herself over and Hilde and Cassandra grabbed onto her legs. "Now, try shifting the rest of your body over!"

Talim tried but then her fingers slipped and she hanged upside down since Hilde and Cassandra were still holding on tightly to her legs. But now the zombies could reach for her and two grabbed onto her arms. "Eeek! Help!" The zombies and Cassandra and Hilde began pulling Talim up and down.

By this time, Setsuka, Siegfried and Kilik had ran out to the closest balcony to see where Talim had been launched out and their eyes widened in horror (Kilik had regained consciousness). Raphael, Sophitia and Amy were unable to find Talim but when they noticed Setsuka's group running out here, they decided to follow them. Stepping out onto the balcony, Raphael nearly had a heart attack. If Talim's grandmother saw Talim getting eaten by zombies on T.V, he could kiss his butt good-bye. Sophitia spotted her sister and shouted to her. "Cassandra! Hold on! Help is on the way!"

"Hilde! I'm coming!" added Siegfried who had finally noticed his love.

"Maxi! Be a man and do something!" Kilik hollered loudly.

Amy peered down below and said, "If we jump from here, we should be able to land safely.

The group nodded and they leaped down from the balcony while Cassandra and Hilde struggled to pull Talim to safety. "Let go of her you disgusting dead people!" shouted Maxi, he hit the zombies on the head with his garden hoe and it got lodged in one of the zombies head. "Eww…"

The zombie dude who got the hoe lodged in his brain moaned and toppled over. Hilde's eyes widened and she said, "Maxi! Aim for the head!"

"You got it Hilde!" Maxi grabbed another gardening hoe and smacked the second zombie away from Talim. But then four more zombies stumbled forward and grabbed her. "Augh! There's no end to these things!" complained Maxi as he continued swiping at them. Indeed, more zombies popped out from the ground.

With four zombies pulling on Talim's arms, Hilde and Cassandra were unable to hold on any longer and when the zombies gave a hearty wrench, Talim slipped out of their grasp. "No!" cried Cassandra and Hilde in panicked unison.

"Ready? Fire!" Raphael and Siegfried held a giant watering hose in hand and Amy turned the thing on when her father shouted. A big blast of icy water shot out and knocked the zombies away from Talim.

Dripping wet but safe, Talim ran away from the zombies and rejoined Raphael's side. "Thanks for saving me… sniff… wahhh... I'm sorry-sniff-for being such a burden… wahh!"

Everyone hugged her except for Raphael. He merely rolled his eyes and said, "Whatever. But if you run off like that next time, I'm so not saving you."

"Excuse me! Aren't you guys forgetting something?" shouted Maxi and Cassandra who were still stuck in the storage shed.

"Out of the way guys!" Hilde leapt out of the window and she fired up her flamethrower. The zombies caught on fire and stumbled away from the intense heat while Cassandra and Maxi jumped out after their friend.

"Run Cassandra! Run!" shouted Sophitia as she urged her sister on. But then rotting hands popped out from the ground and held on tightly to their feet.

Hilde, Cassandra and Maxi toppled forward and the zombies began swarming them. "Not on my watch!" cried Kilik as he ran forth to aid his friend. The rest of the team ran after him and even though they didn't have their weapons, they had their feet.

When a zombie grabbed onto Setsuka's kimono, she snarled and delivered a devastating dropkick on its head and brains flew everywhere (especially on her kimono). "How am I going to wash this off now?" In her rage, she kicked a few more zombies to high heaven.

"Let's show them our super sister slam kick!" said Cassandra as she dodged away from a zombie.

Sophitia grinned. "Here we go then!"

The two Greek sister jumped into the air and both of them shot their foot forward and kicked two zombies so hard, they flew backward ten feet away.

Tossing his hoe aside, Maxi punched a zombie upward and jump kick the thing while shouting, "Rising Dragon of the Zodiac! (It's his critical finish)"

Grabbing onto two of the zombies, Siegfried banged their heads together and needless to say, their heads exploded like ripe watermelons. Beside him, Hilde went wild with her flamethrower and shouted out more challenges to the rest of the undead. "Vile beasts! Come and get me if you dare!" A zombie lumbered toward her and she fried the thing to a crisp.

But even though they were doing a really good job of being zombie exterminators, more kept popping up. "Let's just run into the house and barricade the door!" shouted Kilik as he swept a few more zombies away from him with a swift sweeping low kick.

Amy tripped a zombie that went past her and stomped down on its head. "That's the best suggestion I've heard all day. Let's go people!" Everyone ran toward the house while Hilde stayed near the rear to continue frying the zombies. But one of the zombies grabbed onto Raphael's long cape( he should really ditch the inconvenient thing) and more grabbed onto him and they quickly began dragging him back. "Let go of me you- haugh!" choked Raphael as he unclasp his cape and the zombies fell backward. But more zombies joined in and grabbed onto his feet.

"I'm coming father!" shouted Amy as she turned and ran to save him.

"No! Stay there! As you father, I order you to stay there!" cried Raphael as he grabbed a handful of grass to stop the zombies pulling him.

"Hold on soldier!" Hilde fired up her flamethrower but nothing came out. "Snap! This thing is out of juice!"

"You think so?" Setsuka said sarcastically as she pointed to a pile of zombies that were still burning.

But then someone short ran past her and grabbed onto Raphael and began pulling on his arms. Talim used all the strength in her small body and held on tight. "Hold on Raphael! I'll save you!"

Everyone mouths dropped open in shock. Their scaredy cat priestess was running into a horde of rotting zombies to save someone and there wasn't any trace of fear in her eyes. Well... not as much as usual. Raphael looked at her with a stun expression. "But why?"

"I told you that I'll save all my friends back there in the billiards room! And you're my friend so I'm not going to stand there and let you die!" Talim tugged some more but the zombies were holding stubbornly on to Raphael fancy boots.

Just then, Kilik ran toward them with the cue stick Talim had dropped earlier and knocked the zombies away from Raphael. The vampire flew out of their grasp and landed onto the soft grass. "Sorry Talim, Raphael, I had to run over and grab this thing before I could save you," said Kilik as he knocked a few more zombies away. "Run! I'll hold them back!"

Raphael grabbed Talim and they were about to run for it but then Talim shoved him away and ran to Kilik's side. "Run Raphael! I'll stay behind to take over for Kilik!"

"What! You're crazy! You don't even have a weapon to fight with!" cried Raphael. "Don't do this Talim!"

Setsuka and Sophitia shouted the same thing. "Don't be foolish Talim! Come here quickly!"

Kilik slammed his cue stick against another zombie and said, "Go with them Talim! You're like a little sister to me and I don't want to see you get hurt!"

"SHUT UP!" shouted Talim. Everyone gasped. She had never said something like that before and even the zombies paused for a moment since the people operating them (Algol and his technicians) were busy staring as well. Talim continued shouting in a loud voice to her teammates. "I'M ALWAYS A BURDEN TO YOU GUYS AND YOU'VE ALL BEEN SO NICE TO ME! THIS IS MY CHANCE TO REPAY YOU GUYS SO WILL YOU ALL JUST STEP ASIDE AND LET ME HANDLE THIS?"

She grabbed the cue stick out of Kilik's hand and shoved him away toward Raphael. "NOW GO! JUST GO ALREADY!" The zombies began moving again but the fire of determination burned in Talim's eyes and with one hit, she batted a zombie's head off with one swing.

"We can't let Talim's sacrifice go to waste. Everyone, move!" ordered Hilde. They all charged toward the house and the few stray zombies that tried to get them was easily batted aside.

As they ran into the house and slammed the door shut, a zombie managed to get his hand through and he wrapped his hand tightly around Raphael's neck. "Why-cough-is it always me!"

"Let go of my father!" Amy slammed the door repeatedly on the rotting hand but the zombie continued squeezing the life out of Raphael.

Seeing that everyone was safely inside the house except for the zombie that had one hand inside, Talim threw the cue stick with all her might and it went through the soft and decaying flesh on the zombie's head and killed it. This meant that her teammate can finally close the door and be safe. On the other hand, her teammates could see that Talim was now left defenseless in the garden and the zombies dragged her down into their graves. Being a mother and someone who loves kids, Sophitia burst into tears. "Talim… you're so brave."

Setsuka and Hilde shed a few tears and Siegfried said, "You poor, poor child. Who in the world would see you as a burden?"

Beside him Raphael felt the twenty kilgograms of guilt settle in his stomach. He had thought of Talim as being quite the burden on the team on more than one occasion and now that she had saved him twice in a row, he was feeling quite bad for all the times he had been mean to her.

Suddenly, they heard Cervantes voice. "When I find that priestess, I'm so going to make her pay for my eye."

Everyone on Raphael's team turned around and narrowed their eyes as they saw the pirate approached them. Cervantes noticed them and said, "You guys haven't seen Talim around have you?"

Maxi and Cassandra cracked their knuckles and said, "Why?"

Seeing the look in their eyes (and the fact that they were covered in brains and or nasty stuff), Cervantes laughed and backed away nervously. "Uhh… nothing. Nothing at all."

Just then, his cellphone rang and Cervantes flipped it open. "Hello?"

Tira's voice came through really loudly and everyone could hear everything she said. "Hey Cervy beards, how's your eye? Does it still hurt? I'm sure it must. After all, that annoying priestess did poke it pretty hard. By the way, have you found her yet? I've found some really big croakcoaches that you can use to scare her with. That would be a pretty good way to get revenge right?"

"Not isn't the right time to talk about this Tira," said Cervantes as he began backing away alittle faster from Raphael's team.

But Tira ignore him and continued talking. "What do you mean this isn't the right time? I've even found some intense itching powder that I was going to give you! Maybe we can bobby-trap her bedroom later?"

Snapping his phone shut, Cervantes waved his hand around and said, "Ahahaha... Crazy girl. She has no idea what she's talking about."

"Oh really? Because I had a pretty good idea of what she was talking about," Raphael said quietly. "What do you guys think?" His teammates answered by forming a circle around Cervantes and Raphael said, "Do you like zombies Cervantes?"

"Not really…"

Raphael smiled. "Good." With a snap of his fingers, they all tackled the pirate.

* * *

><p>Status of the Soul Calibur crew, their rooms and points…<p>

Room 1-Raphael

Room 2-Zasalamel

Room 3-Amy

Room4-Lizardman (missing and whereabouts is unknown) 10 points

Room 5-Siegfried

Room 6-Nightamre

Room 7-Hilde

Room 8-Tira

Room 9-Setsuka

Room 10-Mitsurugi (hospitalized and is getting his stomach pumped) 10 points

Room 11-Maxi

Room12- Rock

Room 13-Kilik

Room 14-Xianghua

Room 15-Ivy (launched out of a window and out of the trial) 10 points

Room 16-Cervantes (thrown into the garden by Raphael's team and taken by zombies) 20 points

Room 17-Yoshimitsu (taken by zombies) 20 points

Room 18-Taki

Room 19-Sophitia

Room 20-Hwang

Room 21-Cassandra

Room 22-Seong-Mina

Room 23-Talim (sacrificed herself to save her team and taken by zombies) 20 points

Room 24-Yun-Seong

Mystery Room-Voldo

* * *

><p>Darkwings13: Wow, that was a pretty long chapter. I hope you guys enjoyed reading it. Anyway, it makes me very happy to see all the new stories that are coming in for Soul Calibur! And there's been quite aibt of updates for older stories as well! About time this game got more attention right? To all you writers out there, do your best and don't leave your readers waiting for too long! For those of who are readers, wait paitently and review to give the writers motivation! That reminds me, I want to thank all you those who reviewed this story. I'll try to update the next chapter in about four days or so.<p> 


	18. Misunderstandings of Love

"Zasalamel, I'm hungry," whined Nightmare as he worked on his thirty-fourth crossword puzzle.

Zasalamel ignored him and continued working on his seventy fifth crossword puzzles. On the other side of the room, Rock was working on his crosswords puzzle quietly while touching his black eye. Somehow, he had managed to punch himself in the face while trying to break down the door.

Another hour of nothing but crossword puzzles later…

"Zasalamel! If I don't eat something right this instant, I'll eat your soul!" screamed Nightmare as he stood up and knocked over his pile of crossword puzzles.

Standing up, Zasalamel strode over to Nightmare and shoved a crossword puzzle into his mouth. Two reasons why he did that can be explained quite easily. One, paper is edible but it's not very nutritious or tasty. Two, Zasalamel messed up on that crossword puzzle so he used Nightmare as a trashcan.

Choking on the paper, Nightmare struggled to remove the pulp from his mouth. Rock gave them a bored glance and strode into the bathroom to have a few minutes of peace and solitude. But he only entered the bathroom for about three seconds before storming out and shouting, "Nightmare! Why didn't you flush the toilet?"

Nightmare answered by spitting out some more chewed up pieces of paper before saying. "The darkness does not care!"

"What are you talking about? There's a light bulb in there!" retorted Rock.

Zasalamel sighed and said, "Did you wash your hands at least?"

"Does my hand look like it'll fit in the sink?" And Nightmare held up his gigantic demented arm that looked like it would not be able to fit in the sink.

Taking out a hand sanitizer bottle, Zasalamel threw it over to Nightmare. "Have some hand sanitizer then."

* * *

><p>"Please don't kill us!" begged Yun-Seong as he, Seong-Mina and Hwang backed up against the wall. They were trapped and the crazy axe guy was slowly advancing toward them with his very shiny and sharp axe. Finally their backs hit the wall and to their surprise, it flipped around and they vanished from sight into a secret passageway.<p>

Sliding down a slimy slide, they were launched out of a chute and into a lot of glowing green neon colored slime. Wiping some of the stuff out of her eyes, Seong-Mina said, "Eeewww… What is this stuff? And where are we?" It looks like they landed in some secret occult room and a quick glance showed them cauldrons containing colorful potions bubbling merrily away over hot fires. The stone wall of this gigantic room was covered in strange plants and Seong-Mina thought she spotted a giant Venus fly-trap.

Yun-Seong held up his hand which was covered in the weird green stuff and sniffed it cautiously. "Well, it smells like pudding."

Hwang popped a bit of the stuff into his mouth and said, "It tastes like jello."

"Er… are you sure that was a smart idea, eating that?" Seong-Mina asked with a worried expression.

"WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU PEOPLE DOING!"

The three looked over at the sound of the voice and they gagged. Three of the ugliest hags were looking at them. Their skin was wrinkled, their hair was lank and grey, their teeth were crooked and they all wore long black cloaks. Currently, two of them were stirring a giant pot of the green slime (which was overflowing and making the floor green with the stuff) while the other one sat in a comfy red couch and stroking a purple cat. The three Koreans could all agree that the three hags seem alittle strange but the purple cat was the definite-something is weird about them and I think they're witches- sign. That theory was further confirmed when Hwang turned into a toad. Not a frog, but a big fat and warty green toad. "Oh my god!" cried Seong-Mina.

"What have you done with him!" shouted Yun-Seong as he stood up to look intimidating. But then he slipped in the green slime and fell flat on his face.

The eldest witch cackled gleefully. "We did nothing. Your idiotic friend should've been more careful before swallowing our potion." Her sisters laughed with her and the cat let out a snide meow.

"Can you turn him back?" asked Seong-Mina as Toad Hwang croaked in her hand.

"And why would we do that?" laughed the eldest witch. "What's in it for us?"

"you should be grateful we haven't thrown you three into one of our cauldrons yet," added the middle witch.

The middle witch stared at Seong-Mina thoughtfully before saying, "Actually, I think there is something they can do for us."

"You don't mean…" the eldest witch looked at her youngest sister for a moment before motioning them to come over. The three old witches huddled together and were whispering to each other while Yun-Seong chased after Toad Hwang who was trying to leap into a cauldron full of purple potion. Finally, they finished their discussion and the eldest witch gave a small cough.

Yun-Seong had managed to capture Toad Hwang and he looked at her expectantly. "Yeah?"

"My sisters and I have decided that you two might actually be useful in helping us create this one potion we've been working on for awhile. If you find us three ingredients, we'll tell you how you can turn your friend back," the eldest witch gaze flickered over to the toad. "However, if you fail in your mission, we'll turn you and your girlfriend over there into toads as well."

Before Yun-Seong could say that Seong-Mina was not his girlfriend (although he did have a crush on her), the middle witch gave them a small piece of paper with the ingredients they needed to find. Yun-Seong peered at it before saying, "You need carrots for you potion? What kind of potion is this? Dinner?"

The middle witch looked at the list with a confused glance. "Oops. That's my grocery list. Here's the real list." And she gave him the real list. "And if you're curious, we're trying to make a beauty potion."

Yun-Seong thought to himself, "You guys really do need it." Reading the list, he pursed his lips while Seong-Mina walked over to read it as well.

_Ingredients Needed:_

_-A lock of the smoothest, softest and silkiest hair in this world._

_-A tooth that shines like moonlight._

_-A piece of the most expensive and beautiful fabric you can find._

Seong-Mina thought about the ingredients carefully before asking for a pencil. The youngest witch handed it over and Seong-Mina said, "The first ingredient is probably Maxi's hair. After all, the amount of conditioner and shampoo he spends on that thing is enough to make anyone go bankrupt. I'm not sure about the second ingredient though."

Staring at the piece of paper, Yun-Seong suddenly saw an image of Raphael flashing a smile at some of the ladies when he walked out of the stage while Algol was introducing the teams. If there's one good thing about being a vampire, it was the fact that your teeth became perfectly (and unnaturally) white and sharp. Especially the two front fangs… "I think we'll have to knock out one of Raphael's tooth," Yun-Seong whispered quietly to Seong-Mina.

"What about the third ingredient?" asked Seong-Mina. But then she snapped her fingers and said, "Setsuka! I heard that the kimono she wears is worth a fortune since it's made out of the best silk and was apparently embroidered by the very best!"

Toad Hwang croaked and his two friends looked at him. "I agree with you that getting these ingredients is going to be very difficult," replied Yun-Seong.

"See! Why did you have to pop something like that into your mouth you idiot?" And Seong-Mina began shaking Toad Hwang like crazy.

* * *

><p>"So you're saying that you saw the zombies dragged away Yoshimitsu as well?" Raphael rubbed his eyes as Hilde nodded. They were all siting in the living room and discussing about what they should do next but Raphael wanted to see who was left on the team. Raphael held up his hand and began counting. "Ivy was launched out a window, Yoshimitsu was taken by zombies, and Talim-"<p>

Everyone burst into tears and they all took a moment to recover before moving on. Clearing his throat, Raphael stood up to get everyone's attention. "I've decided that we should move into a defensive position. We're-"

But then Algol's voice, projected from hidden speakers, boomed throughout the mansion. "Everyone! I have big news for you all! I have good news, average news and bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?"

No one answered him since they were still kinda stunned. So Algol rolled his eyes and started with the good news. "The good news is that the Fear Factor part of this contest is not going to be happening due to the fact that we've received too many complaints letters talking about the safety of the contestants. Especially from Yoshimitsu's gang, Hilde's people and Talim's grandmother. So we're now facing a lawsuit unless we drop that part."

Everyone in the house cheered and when things finally calmed down, Algol moved onto the bad news. "The bad news would be that you all must double your efforts to remain as long as possible in the mansion since the points earned in here will be the deciding factor for whether Raphael or Zasalamel team will win. And we're throwing a special surprise so you should all be on your guard. That's all, good luck people."

"Wait! What's the average news?" Siegfried shouted to the ceiling.

Algol said, "Talim's grandmother said she was going to kill Raphael because he couldn't save her grandaughter. But then she changed her mind since her granddaughter's sacrifice would go to waste. And that's why it's average news. Anymore questions?"

"Can we call for pizza?" asked Maxi.

"No." And Algol turned off the speakers.

"Well, let's head to the dining room and have dinner before we resume making plans," said Raphael, trudging off to the dining room while the rest of his team followed behind him.

But when they entered the place, they gasped. Voldo was playing the piano while Xianghua was flipping through a cook book. Taki was rummaging in the cupboards for some more cutleries while Tira was sitting on the floor, blowing up pink and red balloons. "What are you people doing in here! This is our dining room!" yelled Cassandra as she tripped over some pink streamers. "And you do realize that Valentine Day is like eight months away."

Tira let go of the balloon she was blowing up and the thing whooshed out of her hand and into Cassandra's face. Tira giggled as Cassandra slapped the thing away. "You're so dumb. It's obviously for Hua-Hua's anniversary!"

Everyone on Raphael's team turned to look at Kilik who looked rather confused. "I didn't know you guys were married," stated a perplexed Hilde.

"Er… we're not," answered Kilik. "We're not even engaged yet."

It would seem that Taki and Voldo only told Tira that they were planning an anniversary dinner for Xianghua but they didn't give the crazy girl anymore specific details (like the fact that she was possessed). So Tira continued in a rather cheerful voice, "It's for her love who's apparently doing crosswords puzzle in the basement."

Kilik eyes widened and he rushed over to Xianghua. "Is Tira telling the truth? Are you cheating on me Xianghua?"

Ghost Xianghua glanced at him with a bored expression. "I don't even know who you're supposed to be."

"But I'm your boyfriend! It's me, Kilik!"

Setsuka stepped in and put a hand on Kilik's shoulder. "Hold on, I think she's possessed by that ghost we met in the living room. So I really don't think that Xianghua is cheating on you."

Cheating on you…Hearing that, ghost Xianghua perked up and was hit with a brilliant idea. It would seem that this body she inhabited had a boyfriend… Perfect! Her husband was always more concerned about his crossword puzzles than her but if she used this Kilik dude to make her husband jealous, than he would finally ditch those stupid puzzles and be with her! Giving a small cough, ghost Xianghua smiled and said, "I'm afraid you're mistaken. I am not possessed at all. My friend Taki-"she gestured to Taki who was digging around in the cupboards, completely oblivious to what was going on, "sealed away that gorgeous beauty of a ghost. If you love me, you should've paid more attention to me. By the way, my anniversary is in two days. Anyway, I shall be heading off to pick out my anniversary dress. Taki! Let's go!"

Taki stood up so quickly she banged her head on some of the shelves and a few plates crashed to the floor. Wobbling out, a rather dizzy Taki followed Xianghua out of the room. Voldo was so lost in the music that he had missed the entire conversation and he only stood up and left when Tira poked him and said that they were picking out a dress for Xianghua. They quickly ran out of there, leaving Raphael's team feeling rather confused, and a devastated Kilik behind.

"It's ok man. Maybe this is all part of some weird plan to get you to pay attention to her," Siegfried suggested helpfully.

"Yea! That must be it! We all know how much she loves you. There's no way she'd be seeing another guy," added Sophitia.

But then something sparked in Kilik's eyes and he grabbed onto Maxi shirt. "It was you! How could you! I thought we were friends!"

"Wha-What are you talking about?" spluttered Maxi as his feet left the ground since Kilik was lifting him up.

Everyone tried to pull Kilik away but the man held on tightly and in a voice chock full of rage, he screamed, "You are dating my girlfriend!" And he punched Maxi. All the girls screamed and ran over to help Maxi while Siegfried and Raphael tackled Kilik to ground. "Kilik! Get ahold of yourself!" shouted Raphael as he struggled with Kilik's flailing right arm.

"Calm yourself! I thought you underwent years of training with Edgemaster to control your emotions!" And Siegfried pinned down Kilik's left arm.

"I'm going to kill him! She's my girlfriend! I even asked my master for a shard of the Holy Stone to make her a wedding ring!" And Kilik tried to buck Siegfried and Raphael off of him.

Amy stomped over to Kilik and looked down at him. "You idiot. Tira said that her love is currently working on crosswords puzzles in the basement! Does it look like Maxi's in the basement?"

Kilik froze and thought about it before saying, "Oops." He looked at Maxi and grimaced. "I'm sorry buddy. Can you forgive me?"

Raphael and Siegfried sighed and got off Kilik. Standing up, Kilik shook some dust off his clothes and held his hand out to Maxi.

"Sure, why not," said Maxi as he walked over and smiled at Kilik before punching him in the face. "Now we're even."

* * *

><p>"Did you hear something?" asked Zasalamel as he finished crossword puzzle number 150. He thought he heard a lot of footsteps heading this way but then again, after being stuck with Nightmare and Rock for so long, he wouldn't be surprised to find out that he was going crazy.<p>

"The only thing I can hear is Nightmare's snoring," replied Rock sleepily. They both turned to look at Nightmare who was sleeping in a corner, covered in finished crossword puzzles for warmth. Zasalamel had finally agreed to let Rock and Nightmare catch a short nap since it looked like they were starting to go bonkers. Hearing nothing else, Rock went back to sleep and Zasalamel resumed working on another crossword puzzle.

But then he heard someone banging on the door. Not wanting Rock and Nightmare to wake up (they would probably be really grumpy and whinny and annoy Zasalamel even more), Zasalamel strode over to the door and said, "Who is it?"

"Shut up mister stealing girlfriend guy! I'm going to be the one asking the questions here!" screamed a rather berserk Kilik. His teammates gave him a few awkward glances but they stayed quiet.

Leaning against the door, Zasalamel said casually, "I have no idea what you're talking about. And will you please keep it down."

"NO! I will not keep it down! Tell me your name so that I may make you my eternal rival!" Kilik shouted.

Quirking an eyebrow, Zasalamel said, "Is that you Kilik?"

Kilik's mouth opened and closed for a few seconds like a dying fish and he turned around to his teammates. "He knows my name! He's someone we know!"

Thinking hard, Amy suddenly realized why the voice sounded so familiar. "Hey Kilik, I'm not too sure about this since this thick door is sort of muffling his voice but I think it's Zasalamel."

"Not that you mentioned it, I think you're right my beloved daughter!" Raphael put his ear against the door. "Monsieur Baldie?"

"IF YOU CALL ME THAT ONE MORE TIME SOREL, I SWEAR I'LL STRANGLE YOU!"

Raphael stepped away from the door and grinned. "Yep. It's Zasalamel alright."

Kilik began kicking at the door ferociously. "Zasalamel! How dare you steal my girlfriend! I'll kill you for this!"

"What in the world are you talking about? You mean Xianghua?" asked Zasalamel, feeling baffled by such an accusation. "She is a very lovely girl but-"

Kilik cut in with a roar of rage. "Find yourself some other pretty girl who's not my girlfriend! When I break down this door, get ready for an early reincarnation! And when you are reincarnated, I'll hunt you down and kill you again! And again! And again!" But no matter how hard he kicked and punched the door, it wouldn't break. His teammates stared at him with a frightened expression. They had never seen Kilik lose control like that.

Shrugging, Zasalamel said, "If you do manage to break down this steel enforced door, then I'll have to thank you. This basement isn't actually comfortable."

Before Kilik could reply with some insults, Cassandra shrieked and pointed down the hallway at the crazy axe guy that was quickly approaching. "Everyone! It's a crazy axe guy! We've got to run!"

"I'm not leaving until I break down this door!" shouted Kilik stubbornly while still trying to break down the door.

"I can't afford to lose any more people! Siegfried, you take his right arm! Hilde, you take his right leg! Cassandra, you take his left leg and Maxi-" Raphael stopped when he saw that Maxi fainted. "Ok, I'll take Kilik's right arm. Everyone else, carry Maxi!" ordered Raphael as they grabbed onto Kilik and carried him away. Behind them, Sophitia and Setsuka struggled to carry Maxi away but they couldn't handle it so they merely grabbed onto his arms and dragged him away. His head hit the walls every time they made a sharp turn.

* * *

><p>Walking up the stairs, Seong-Mina and Yun-Seong quickly hid behind some curtains in the second open living room and they saw Raphael team running away from something. Seong-Mina nudged him and whispered, "What should we do?"<p>

"I'm not sure, let's just follow them for now."

Toad Hwang croaked in agreement on top of Yun-Seong's head. But then things got weird when the house began rumbling. Dust fell from the ceiling and the two Koreans saw the floor opened up. It swallowed Raphael, Cassandra, Kilik, Hilde and Siegfried and it closed up three seconds later. Setsuka, Sophitia screamed, dropped Maxi near the stairs, and ran over to the spot where their friends disappeared. "Is the house alive?" wondered Yun-Seong fearfully.

"It won't open!" shouted a frustrated Setsuka.

"Cassandra! Can you hear me?" Sophitia placed her head down on the floor and tried in vain to hear her sister. "I can't hear anything."

"Crud! Maxi's tipping down the stairs!" pointed Setsuka. Indeed, as the two girls ran over, Maxi rolled down the creaky stairs and ended up with a face full of splinters.

"Let's follow those three…" whispered Yun-Seong. "With Maxi unconscious, we'll be able to snip away a bit of his hair."

"I'll handle Setsuka then," said Seong-Mina. "Let's pretend to form a temporary alliance with them and have them drop their guard around us first."

"Got it." Stepping out from the curtains, Yun-Seong opened his arms and smiled at the two girls who were looking down at Maxi from the top of the stairs. "Setsuka! Sophitia! How glad I am to see you!"

They turned around and eyed him suspiciously. "What are you two doing here?"

"We got separated from our team," lied Seong-Mina. "We saw Raphael, Cassandra, Kilik, Hilde and Siegfried falling down that hole so we were wondering if you three would like to form a temporary truce with us. You know, until we're reunited with our teams."

Setsuka answered, "And why would we do that?"

"Well… it would be safer if we travelled together in this creepy house," reasoned Seong-Mina. "There are a lot of strange things we're going to be going up against and it wouldn't hurt to have more people looking out for you."

Setsuka and Sophitia looked at each other for a moment before turning back to Seong-Mina. "Alright, we'll accept your truce for now. But if you try anything funny…" and Setsuka cracked her knuckles.

Yun-Seong laughed nervously. "Of course, we won't try anything funny. Ahahah…"

"Why do you have a frog on your head?" asked Sophitia who just noticed.

"It's not a frog. It's a toad," replied Seong-Mina, shooting a dark look at Hwang.

Toad Hwang merely croaked in response and blinked his big eyes at her.

Darkwings13: Sometimes, I have no idea where these ideas come from... Ahahaha, but I think I really outdone myself, making Kilik misunderstand Zasalamel. Ah... Poor Hwang, why did he pop that stuff into his mouth. Thanks for reading, I love you guys. If you got any ideas for monsters to pop up in this mansion, don't be afraid to suggest it. ^^


	19. Angry Mama Dragon

In all the confusion, everyone failed to notice that Amy had stayed behind and was staring intently at the axe man. She showed no fear as he walked up to her and the two looked at each other before Amy snapped her fingers, jumped up, snatched off the black ski mask and exclaim, "Astaroth!"

"Damn it! Why did you have to spoil it you little worm?" Indeed, it was Astaroth, and he looked very unhappy to be discovered. "How did you know it was me in the first place!"

"You'd be surprised how observant one gets when one has to live with my father," Amy said calmly. "But why are you here? Where in the world were you anyway? What happened when you and Ashlotte-"

Astaroth cut in by pulling out his cellphone. "Algol, she's on to us! What do we do?"

"Don't worry, my men are already on it," said Algol. True to his word, a helicopter flew over the house, two secret agents burst in through the window, grabbed Amy, jumped out the window, climbed up a ladder and safely into the helicopter. The aircraft flew away with a mildly annoyed Amy who was starting to worry about how her father would fare without her. "I hope he'll remember to brush his teeth" she thought worriedly. Those things weren't perfectly white without her constant nagging and the fact that he was a chocolate addict didn't help either.

"Ok Astaroth, put your ski mask back on and begin breaking down the door with your axe. According to our mathematician calculations, based on the thickness of the door, your muscles, and the sharpness of your axe, you should be able to break through in about one day," said Algol.

Astaroth grunted in reply. "You had better keep your side of the deal when this is over." Closing his cellphone, he put on his ski mask, lifted his big axe and began hitting the steel enforced door.

Naturally, this woke up Nightmare and Rock. "What in the world is going on?" Nightmare mumbled, rubbing his eyes.

In answer, writings appeared on the wall and Zasalamel made his way over hastily to read it.

_Gentleman, you are quickly running out of time. The crazy axe man will be able to break down the door in about one day. You must hurry up if you want to live! _

And the time when Astaroth would break down the door began counting down on the wall.

Zasalamel turned around, walked over to his stack of crossword puzzles and began counting. He ordered Rock and Nightmare to do the same thing and a few minutes of furious counting ensued.

"What comes after four?" asked Nightmare.

Zasalamel suppressed the urge to bang his head on the wall over and over again. "Nightmare," he began slowly. "I know that you've devoured many souls but let me ask you, don't you devour the souls of anyone that's even alittle bit intelligent?"

"Pah! Souls of nerds are weak. I need souls of strong brawny people," Nightmare said happily. "They're the tastiest.

Go figures. Zasalamel rolled his eyes and grabbed Nightmare's pile of papers and began counting. "Hey Zasalamel, can you count mine too. I'm not that great at math," Rock said sheepishly.

To keep control, Zasalamel took a deep breath and began counting to ten. Maybe he should just give up and let the axe guy kill him. After all, he would just get reincarnated anyway. When he finished counting, he had a feeling that he was really going to die. "We only have 237 crosswords done… We are so not going to make it."

Astaroth continued hammering away at the door and the sounds must've really motivated Rock and Nightmare because those two leapt up and began solving crosswords puzzles like crazy. "I can't die yet! Bangoo needs me!"

"Without me, Tira can't decide what she should wear each morning! I cannot die!" Nightmare was actually solving two crossword puzzles at the same time.

Zasalamel stared in amazement. "I guess having death knock-" Astaroth hit the door some more, "or bang on your door is enough to get those two to finally get those two to get their act together."

* * *

><p>Early the next day…<p>

"Hey Raphael, wake up." Siegfried nudged Raphael motionless body with his foot but the vampire lay there, unmoving.

"Sometimes, we must use a more physical type of method to revive others," Hilde said, looking down at Raphael. "I think he might've swallowed some sand.

Cassandra arched an eyebrow at her friend. "What are you thinking Hilde?"

"Hyahh!" She leaped down and elbowed him hard in the stomach.

"Augh!" A gush of wet sand spewed forth from Raphael's mouth and he shouted, "What did you do that for! And where the in world are we?"

"Take a look for yourself." Hilde gestured to around her.

Raphael looked around the place and his eyes widened. It looked like they were in one of those Egyptian pyramids and sand was all around them. Detailed hieroglyphics were painted on the wall and torches attached to the walls made their shadows flicker and move. Curse it! When he got warped to Egypt because of Zasalamel's blackhole, he had to endure getting stuck in a pyramid for hours. This was so déjà vu. "How in the world did Algol build the inside of a pyramid under the mansion?"

"You and Zasalamel had to cough up a lot of money for this contest. I'm assuming it did not go to waste," Cassandra pointed out indifferently. "How are we going to find our way back up anyway?"

Hilde grabbed a torch. "We'll just have to search for an exit. Everyone, stay close to each other and don't touch anything. Anything." She emphasized that word really clearly and looked at them straight in the eyes.

"Uh, guys, what are we going to do about Kilik?" asked Siegfried, pointing to the monk.

Kilik was still devastated since he thought that Xianghua loved Zasalamel. He stared at the walls blankly and his aura of gloominess clung to him like a cloud. They could actually see this weird black cloud hanging over him. The thing cackled with lightning occasionally as well. "Hey Kilik, cheer up man. I'm sure Xianghua will come to her senses and take you back. After all, unlike me, you can be forgiven. Just ask for redemption for your sins," said Siegfried, trying to assume a friendly tone of voice.

"What are you, a priest?" whispered Raphael. "Not everyone wants to go crazy and ask for forgiveness like you do Siegfried."

Siegfried glared at him. "I forgot you're a vampire. No priest in any church will want to forgive or cleanse you. They'd probably want to stake you!"

"How dare you!"

Siegfried poked Raphael's chest with one finger. "Name one person who would actually be willing to forgive you!"

"Kilik would. He's a monk"

Kilik turned his head to look at Raphael. "Not really. I've been thinking that it's all your fault that Xianghua joined the other team. Maybe if you hadn't change this world, me and her could've gotten married. And have a child. And…" But Kilik became too depressed to continue and the rain cloud over his head began raining (courtesy of Algol's technician who's making it rain and follow Kilik around).

Thinking hard, Raphael snapped his fingers and laughed. "Ha! No priest may want to forgive my sins, but I know a priestess who will."

Siegfried arched an eyebrow at him. "You mean Talim? She forgives everyone. She doesn't count."

"Does too!"

"Does not!"

"Does too!"

"Will you two stop bickering?" Cassandra stomped down on both of their feet angrily and the two men cried out in pain. "We need to get out of here and rejoin our other missing members!"

Suddenly, Raphael realized that Amy wasn't with him. "Amy! Where are you?" he cried out frantically.

"I think she might be with Maxi, Setsuka and my sister," said Cassandra.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go find them!" and Raphael was about to rush off when he noticed that Kilik was still standing there motionlessly. "Kilik! Hurry up and move it!"

Cassandra stomped down on his foot again. "Can't you show alittle sympathy for the poor guy? He's heartbroken!"

Hilde strode over to Kilik and grabbed him by the shoulders. Looking into his eyes, she said, "Kilik, are you a man?"

He didn't say anything.

"Don't you have any honor?" continued Hilde.

He still didn't say anything.

"Do you love Xianghua?"

At that, Kilik perked up and listened to her while nodding like a robot. Shaking the rain water out of her face, Hilde said, "Are you going to let Zasalamel win Xianghua's hand without even putting up a fight?"

With those motivating words, Kilik grabbed a torch, and dashed out of there using his legendary record breaking speed. The rain cloud flew after him, leaving a trail of water. Siegfried looked at the trail of puddles and said, "At least we'll be able to follow him."

* * *

><p>With a pair of sharp scissors in his hand Yun-Seong was awaiting the opportunity to cut off some of Maxi's hair. After spending some time to painfully remove the splinters from his face, Setsuka had explained the situation to him and the small group was looking around for their missing members. But then Toad Hwang escaped for like the millionth time and hopped away from them. "Come back here!" cried Seong-Mina.<p>

"When did you guys get a pet toad anyway?" asked Sophitia as they chased after the toad.

Yun-Seong decided that it was just best to ignore that question. After a while, Toad Hwang hopped through an opened door. Coming to a stop, they wrenched the door open all the way and peeked inside. "Woah…" murmured Maxi.

It seems that they had entered the indoor pool room. Maxi tried flicking on the light switch but it was broken. "I guess we'll just have to look for your toad in the dark."

They entered the room nervously and tiptoed around. The water was dark and still and everything was quite quiet except for the occasional cursing when someone bumped into something. After looking through some towels, Setsuka finally found Toad Hwang. "Ahah! Gotcha!" But Toad Hwang wiggled out of her grasp and jumped into the waters. "$H1ZZ!"

"I'm not jumping in that," said Sophitia. I'm wearing white."

Setsuka glanced over at her and said, "Frankly, that outfit of your is so revealing, that jumping in there wouldn't make much of a difference." Setsuka then flourished her kimono. "This is what a real woman with pride should wear."

"You're saying I don't have any pride?" Sophitia glowered at her.

"No, I'm saying you have a poor choice in fashion. Only whores would wear what you're wearing."

"So now you're saying I'm whore!" Sophitia yelled angrily. "Just to let you know, half of your kimono is hanging off your body."

"I wear it like that so I can fight!"

"How cheap! So you wear it like that so men can stare at your chest while you walk up to them with your umbrella and kill them! I fight with real skills!"

"Why don't we just calm down for a moment ladies," Maxi walked up to them and held up his hands. "You're both very beautiful and your outfits are very… eye catching. Let's just find the stupid toad and get out of here. After that, you guys can argue all you want alright?"

"Fine," said the two in unison. A splash made them turn their head to see Seong-Mina pushing Yun-Seong into the pool.

"You so owe me for this Mina!" shouted Yun-Seong as he swam around in the cold water.

Setsuka stepped up to Maxi and pushed him into the pool too. "Hurry up and find that dumb toad Maxi!"

"There's chlorine in here!" shrieked Maxi. "It's going to kill my hair!"

"Then the faster you find that frog, the faster you can get out of there!" shouted Setsuka.

Maxi thought about arguing back but he really wanted to get this over with so he merely took in a deep breath, and dived down. Man, this pool was huge! Swimming around, he brushed up against something and grabbed it. Surfacing, he held the creature in his hand. "Hey guys! I think I found it!"

Yun-Seong popped up at the same time and he held a handful of gold coins and a big ruby necklace. "I found treasure!" He swam over to Maxi and looked at him. "And you found a lizard."

Maxi looked at the lizard and said, "Ew, this thing sure is ugly." But then wings sprouted from the lizard's back and it blew a small jet of fire at him. To be specific, his hair caught on fire and it's not a lizard, it's a baby dragon. Screaming, Maxi flung it away from him with all his might (Yun-Seong quickly sniped off some of Maxi's hair) and dived down to put out the fire. The baby dragon hit the wall with a squeal and dropped down to the ground.

Setsuka, Sophitia and Seong-Mina began screaming like crazy because the mother dragon was rising out of the waters and she was very angry. She looked at the red head, who was stealing her treasure, and she looked at the guy who threw her baby and she couldn't decide who she eats first. Oh what the heck, she'll just eat both of them. And she reached for Yun-Seong and Maxi with her sharp claws. The two men screamed and they accidently swallowed a lot of chlorine water. But then pool chairs flew through the air and striked the dragon on the snout. "Don't you dare eat him you fat lizard! "Shouted Seong-Mina as she, Sophitia and Setsuka threw more chairs.

The dragon roared and it blasted a big fireball toward them. The three ladies managed to dodge it but abit of the flames caught onto Setsuka's kimono. Seizing her chance, Seong-Mina splashed some pool water on the thing before pretending to step on it and the fabric teared. "You ripped my kimono! "screamed Setsuka.

"I was just trying to put out the flames!" And Seong-Mina quickly pocketed the fabric as the dragon let out another roar.

The three girls turned to see the dragon lifting Yun-Seong high up in the air and toward her big mouth with very pointy and sharp teeth. "No! Yun-Seong!" cried Seong-Mina.

But then Toad Hwang popped out from behind the dragon's horns and hopped onto her eyeball really hard. The dragon cried out and dropped Yun-Seong. It thrashed around in the ginormous pool and water splashed everywhere. Toad Hwang jumped off and landed safely onto Yun-Seong's head and the Korean began swimming frantically for shore. Seong-Mina held out her hand and pulled Yun-Seong out of the waters and she gave him the piece of fabric she snatched from Setsuka.

Beside them, Sophitia and Setsuka helped pull Maxi out as well. They ran for their life toward the door but Seong-Mina slipped in a puddle of water. "Mina!" Yun-Seong was going to run back and save her but everyone else grabbed onto him and they dragged him out of there.

"There's no point in both of you getting eaten," said Sophitia as she pulled his arm. The dragon shot another jet of flame at them and they ducked.

"Close the door! Quickly!" ordered Maxi. "The dragon won't chase after us since it has to look after its treasures!"

Setsuka kicked the door shut and they continued dragging away a devastated Yun-Seong while the door to that terrible room burst into flames. "MINAAAAA!"

* * *

><p>"Wakey wakey!" cheered Tira as she shook Voldo and Taki awake. The ninja was sleeping in a pile of clothes Xianghua had tried on last night and Voldo was curled under the bed. "Today's a big day everyone!"<p>

Taki sat up and gave a loud yawn. "I can't wait for this day to be over."

Voldo crawled out from under the bed and agreed with her. "Shshs (And let's just hope that everything goes well)."

Ghost Xianghua jumped out from her closet and she said, "Well, what do you think?"

"You look… awesome!" Tira exclaimed excitedly.

Xianghua was wearing a very short blue dress and if Voldo wasn't blind, he would've had a nosebleed. Giggling, ghost Xianghua gave Tira a high five. "You think my husband will like it?"

Taki thought that if her husband didn't like it, then he must be gay. "Who's your husband anyway?" asked the curious ninja.

"It'll take too long to describe him, so I'll just show you a picture of him." Xianghua walked over to her drawers and grabbed a picture of her husband to show them. Handing it over to the ninja, Taki eyes widened and it was hard to tell what she was thinking. On one hand, she wanted to laugh her head off; on the other hand…

Tira skipped over and snatched the picture out of her hand to see who it was. "Why does Zassy have long dreadlocks in this picture?"

* * *

><p>Status of the Soul Calibur crew, their rooms and points…<p>

Room 1-Raphael

Room 2-Zasalamel

Room 3-Amy (discovered something she shouldn't have and is kidnapped by Algol's secret agents) 20 points

Room4-Lizardman (missing and whereabouts is unknown) 10 points

Room 5-Siegfried

Room 6-Nightamre

Room 7-Hilde

Room 8-Tira

Room 9-Setsuka

Room 10-Mitsurugi (hospitalized and is getting his stomach pumped) 10 points

Room 11-Maxi

Room12- Rock

Room 13-Kilik

Room 14-Xianghua

Room 15-Ivy (launched out of a window and out of the trial) 10 points

Room 16-Cervantes (thrown into the garden by Raphael's team and taken by zombies) 20 points

Room 17-Yoshimitsu (taken by zombies) 20 points

Room 18-Taki

Room 19-Sophitia

Room 20-Hwang

Room 21-Cassandra

Room 22-Seong-Mina (either burnt or eaten by a very angry mama dragon) 30 points

Room 23-Talim (sacrificed herself to save her team and taken by zombies) 20 points

Room 24-Yun-Seong

Mystery Room-Voldo

* * *

><p>Darkwings13: I told you guys that i would bring Astaroth back sooner or later. But why is he working for Algol? That's going to remain a mystery for now. Muhhaha. And is Zaslamel really the ghost's husband? Was it one of his reincarnation from the past where he liked solving crossword puzzle and got killed by a mad axe man? Or did Algol just photoshop the picture? All these questions will be answer later on. Unfortunately, I'm going to be taking a break from Calibur world to focus on my other story for now. So please be patient. Until next time my lovely readers. And thank you all who have reviewed and for your wonderful suggestions for monsters. I'm very grateful for the kind words and thoughtful input.<p> 


	20. Pineapple and Honey

"Shshs (Are you serious)?" asked Voldo, striding over to them.

Tira's head bobbed up and down. "Look! He even has that same gold eye! And really bad fashion sense." Indeed, Zasalamel was wearing a neon yellow suit and his dreadlocks had some cold coloured beads in it. In the picture, it looked like he won some kind of crossword puzzle award and was awarded $1000000000000000000000000000.

"No wonder he's rich..." thought Taki.

Her thoughts were interrupted when Xianghua chirped, "Ok guys, let my day of anniversary happiness and wonders... begin! What's the first thing on our to do list?"

"Well..." said Taki, pulling out her to do list. "First off, we need to find Zasa- I mean your hubby. He's in the basement correct?"

Xianghua pursed her lips in annoyance. "Humph, he's always in there solving those stupid puzzles. It makes me angry just thinking about it."

Voldo gave her a few pats on the back. "Hshssh shshs hsss (It's not good to start off your anniversary with a frown on your face. I'm sure he remembered its your anniversary and who knows, he might even have something special planned)."

"For our safety, let's hope so," muttered Taki as they left the room and headed to the basement.

* * *

><p>"Hurry! Hurry!Hurry!" screamed Nightmare as the three pushed each other around to finish the last crossword puzzle on the wall. His usual messy writing was almost unintelligible. For example, his last word was pineapple. But someone with perfectly healthy vision would've read it as pimocpplp. Now, if someone with a high power, super expensive magnifying glasses reads it, they would read it as pineopplo and if they were smart, they might be able to identify the word as pineapple and not pineopplo. Might...<p>

Zasalamel shoved Rock's foot away from his face as he bent down to try and scribble a word in the bottom right corner. Rock was trying to scribble the word carrot in the left hand corner while shoving Nightmare aside because his huge and demented arm was in the way. Meanwhile, the door was starting to crack as Astaroth continued breaking down the door and shouting, "I'm going to-" Astaroth looked at the script Algol gave him. "I'm going to kill you if you don't hurry! Evil laugh."

From the high tech room, Algol slapped his forehead. "You idiot. You were suppose to laugh evilly. Not say evil laugh. Good gracious, someone get me a coffee latte with extra milk and ten teaspoons of sugar."

Back at the basement, sweat poured down their heads and drenched their arm pits because Zasalamel, Rock and Nightmare were feeling really stressed from being killed by a crazy axe man if they didn't finish the last crossword puzzle. At long last, they finished the crossword puzzle just as the door broke into a million pieces and Astaroth (still wearing the black ski mask) stepped into the room. "Prepare to die worms!"

"Hey! Wait a minute!" protested Rock. "We finished the puzzle."

Astaroth sneered. "You should've finished before I smash down that stupid steel enforced door that took like forever to break down. So quit whining and-"

"Honey boo!" Xianghua appeared behind Astaroth and shoved the golem out of the way. "Are you ready for our anniversary?" The three men looked at her extremely short blue dress and their faces turned red. Except for Nightmare since he was sort of made out of darkness and his helmet sort of covered his face. Tira, Voldo and Taki appeared beside her and they shoved Astaroth further back. "Nighty! I missed you!" Tira opened her arms and ran to him. Giving Nightmare a bear hug, she giggled, "You've came at the right time. You can be the waiter for Hua Hua's anniversary dinner."

"What?" asked a confused Nightmare.

"Ok!" said Xianghua cheerfully. But then she looked at Zasalamel with a confused expression. "Honey! What happened to your dreadlocks?"

Zasalamel arched an eyebrow. "My dreadlocks? What are you talking about woman?"

But then Xianghua's eyes sparkled with tears and she grabbed his hands. "You... got a haircut for our anniversary? That's so romantic!"

We're having an anniversary?" asked a perplexed Zasalamel.

"YOU FORGOT OUR ANNIVERSARY?" thundered Xianghua. Her hair suddenly spiked up and a blue ghostly aura clung to her like as ominous cloud.

Taki jumped over and clamped Zaalamel's mouth and laughed nervously. "Of course he didn't forget. He was just joking." "Taki turned to Zasalamel and said, "Don't say anything that'll upset her. She thinks you're her husband."

"WHAT!" But since his mouth was clamped shut, they heard "Mpmphj!

Taki took out the picture and gave it to Zasalamel. She watched as his eyes widened in horror and she quickly whispered about what happened into his ear at ninja speed. So after 1.5 seconds, he realized that Xianghua was possessed by a ghost. But that still didn't explain the picture. Zasalamel struggled to remember if he ever looked like that before but after living for so long and going through so many lifetimes, he couldn't remember. His eyes flickered over to Xianghua and he said, "So... our... anniversary. Umm... Yeah, I can't wait. Of course I didn't forget..."

"Whew, you had me worried for a moment." Xianghua brushed some hair away from her face and gave him a beaming smile. "Come on honey, let's get this party started." She skipped over to him and grabbed his arm but then her nose wrinkled. "Errrr... honey boo. When was the last time you took a bath?"

"Three days ago," answered Zasalamel. There was no way he, Nightmare or Rock could take a bath since they had to finish five hundred puzzles so it was either be stinky but live, or smell nice and die.

Leaning close to Nightmare, Tira wrinkled her nose as well. "Nighty! You can't go out smelling like this!" She switched to her gloomy side. "I'll scrub you down with steel brushes if that's what it takes to get this nasty smell off you."

Everyone watched as she dragged Nightmare off while he was trying to escape her grip. When his cries of "Nooooooo!" disappeared, they turned back to Xianghua who was crying tears of joy that Zasalamel had finally started to care about their relationship which made no sense at all since he didn't say anything husbandly and no romantic speeches came forth either. All he did was nod and say that he was looking forward to their anniversary (with a very hesitant voice).

As everyone prepared to leave, Astaroth blocked the exit. "Hey! It took me all night to break down that blasted door! I'm not letting anyone go until I get to destroy somebody."

"But we finished all of the puzzles!" protested Rock.

"Yeah, but you did a terrible job finishing the last one," said Astaroth, pointing to the one on the wall. "What the hell does that say? Pimocpplp?"

"Well, that was Nightmare's writing," argued Rock. "Why don't you go kill him?"

"Because he already escaped with Tira," retorted Astaroth. "So now it's either you or Zasalamel that will be sacrificed."

But then Xianghua shot him a -anyone who touches my honey boo dies- look. Astaroth got the message pretty clear so he cleared his throat and said, "Fine, it looks like it's Rock then."

"You know what, you're getting on my nerves," grumbled Rock as he did some quick warm ups. "Fine, let's see what you've got. I'll defeat you and make Bangoo proud while he's watching this on T.V"

"You're on!" Astaroth threw away his axe and the two began wrestling with each other. Xianghua shrugged and dragged away a protesting Zasalamel since he didn't want to lose another teammate. "Taki, Voldo! Go help Rock!" ordered Zasalamel.

"No! I need them to help prepare our anniversary stuff today." Xianghua stomped her foot and glared at him. "No one is leaving until I say so!" Behind her, Astaroth threw Rock to the ground and held him in a half nelson.

Zasalamel was about to protest about leaving Rock but then Xianghua pulled him by the ear and left the basement. Taki and Voldo turned to the wrestling match and the ninja said, "Do you need any help Rock?"

Rock started choking Astaroth and he shook his head. "No! I must do this by myself! Bangoo would not be proud of me if you guys helped. If you interfere, I'll never forgive you."

"Errr…. Alright then. Good luck," said Taki as she and Voldo left. As Voldo closed the door with a loud bang, the giant pile of crosswords puzzles tipped over and buried Astaroth and Rock in papers.

"Ah! I got a paper cut!" shouted Astaroth.

"Oh shut up you big baby!" And Rock grabbed on to Astaroth's arms and began pulling it in a painful direction. "Who are you anyway?"

"You don't need to know that," answered Astaroth as he flipped Rock over his shoulders.

Rock rolled away and in the next few minutes of intense pro wrestling, he managed to take off Astaroth's mask. "ASTAROTH?"

"Er... You're wrong. I'm wearing an deluxe and very realistic Astaroth mask," lied Astaroth, hoping that Rock would fall for it."

"Ok..." Rock shrugged. "Ah, who cares who you are. I'll defeat you anyway." Throwing away the black ski mask, they continued fighting each other in the giant pool of paper."

* * *

><p>"Honey boo! She called him honey boo!" sobbed Kilik.<p>

Under the mansion where it looked like they were inside an Egyptian pyramid, Kilik was crying his eyes out because there was an air vent that connected the place where they were standing and the basement. So he heard Xianghua call Zasalamel 'honey boo'. Cassandra and Hilde were trying to offer him comforting words while ignoring the now giant rain cloud of misery raining over them. Raphael and Kilik were straining their ears to see if they can hear any more valuable information but for the next few minutes, they only heard painful thumps, punches, swear words, etc . Stroking his chin, Raphael looked at Kilik who was still weeping, and then he smiled. "I've got it! Guys! We're going to be crashing Zasalamel's and Xianghua's-"

Kilik cried even harder. Raphael cleared his throat and continued, "anniversary. If we ruin it, Xianghua might... be reunited with Kilik."

"And it seems like everyone is afraid of her for some reason," added Siegfried. "So if the anniversary fails, she'll get angry and she'll-"

"Take her rage out on someone," finished Hilde. "Kilik, are you in? Are you going to fight back?"

Kilik sniffed and said, "Do you think... it'll work?"

Hilde gave him another pat on the back and said, "Of course. Xianghua will realize you're the right man for her once this stupid anniversary thing fails."

"Alright, I'll trust your words then," replied Kilik hesitantly.

"And if we play our cards right, we could get Xianghua to take out Zasalamel and eliminate him from this competition," added Cassandra. "But... how are we going to get out of this mess first?"

They peeked out from their protective wall of coffins as the mummies tried to get them. The pharaoh mummy was shaking his fist at them for disturbing his 100.000.000 years slumber or something like that. It didn't help that Kilik's raincloud was making the water level starting to rise and apparently, the mummies didn't like that very much since it's speeding up their decomposing process. Raphael sighed and tapped his chin. "How about... one of us act as a decoy while the others try to run free? Hey Siegfried, you seem like you would be a pretty good decoy. That sparkling armour of yours is bound to attract their attention."

Siegfried smiled and said in a sarcastic tone of voice," That's a wonderful idea. How did you know I wanted to die an early death?"

Raphael smirked. "Well, the fans all say you were pretty emo in Soul Calibur 3 and 4."

Giving Raphael a fake smile, Siegfried said, "You always know the right thing to say Raphael... Hyah!" Siegfried quickly grabbed Raphael and tossed him over their protective wall and into the crowd of mummies. "I'll get you for this Siegfried!" screamed Raphael as he ran away from the moaning and rotting zombies.

"Now's our chance!" shouted Hilde. They quickly got out of their barrier made of Egyptians coffins and ran to freedom.

"Do you think Raphael will be alright?" asked Cassandra, running behind Hilde.

Siegfried answered her. "He's a vampire. Of course he'll be ok. They're like in the same group of the undead so I don't think anything too bad can happen to him."

"I hate vampires! It's because of you people, that us mummies went out of style!" echoed down the pyramid long hallway and they heard Raphael scream.

* * *

><p>"I... am going to go off on my own!" declared Yun-Seong as he separated from Maxi, Setsuka and Sophitia and headed down a different corridor. "It's because of you guys that I was unable to save Mina. I'll never forgive you!"<p>

Sophitia crossed her arms and tapped her foot. "Excuse me? It was your toad's fault for jumping into that room. Don't blame us."

"I agree with you Sophitia," said Setsuka in an annoyed tone of voice. "Besides, he's not even on our team so who cares."

Maxi shrugged and agreed with them. "I feel kind of bad for leaving him to fend for himself but he was the one who insisted on separating. So..." he paused before saying, "How long do you think he'll last on his on?"

"Not long," said the two pretty females in unison. And they were right about that because they heard Yun-Seong scream as the floor underneath his feet opened up and he dropped down the hole.

Sighing, Setsuka rubbed her temples. "How many stupid trap holes does this stupid mansion have?"

Sophitia tilted her head and stroked her chin. "Well, we'll just have to try to remember which spot we should avoid stepping on to avoid falling into those holes. So, how about we head to the living room and watch some movies?"

"I'll go get some popcorns then," volunteered Maxi.

"Uh, aren't we suppose to be looking for our teamates?" asked Setsuka.

Maxi raised his hands in a whatever gesture. "We'll find them sooner or later. I say, we should just go with the flow."

Setsuka rolled her eyes and mumbled, "Fine. But if Raphael starts lecturing us on team spirit, I'll just tell him that you rather watched movies and eat popcorn than win this competition."

As Setsuka and Sophitia headed to the living room to prepare the movie, Maxi headed to the kitchens to make popcorn. And hopefully, it didn't expire 50 years ago.

* * *

><p>"Whew, that was a pretty good warm up fight," said Astaroth as he emerged victorious from the pile of papers. "Algol should really give me a raise for this." Grabbing onto one of Rock's leg, he began dragging the unconscious guy out of there. Dialling on his cellphone, Astaroth called Algol. "Algol, I've just defeat the worm Rock. What should I do with the body?"<p>

"Throw him out of the house," replied Algol. "I'll send one of my men to pick him up and escort him to the place where the rest of the losers of this competition are staying."

"Ok, bye." Astaroth snapped his phone shut and continued dragging Rock away.

* * *

><p>Chewing on his freshly made popcorn, Maxi was heading toward the living room when suddenly, he saw some big guy chucking Rock out a window. Dropping his bag of buttery popcorn, he gasped. "What are you doing?" As Astaroth turned around, Maxi gasped again. Although this one was an angry kind of gasp. "ASTAROTH? WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU DOING HERE YOU FREAK?"<p>

"Watch your mouth maggot!" retorted Astaroth. "Scram, if you know what's good for you."

Maxi picked up his popcorn and then he threw it Astaroth. "Make me you freak."

"That's it! It shall rain blood today!" And Astaroth charged at Maxi.

"Heh. You're going down big time!" And Maxi charged at Astaroth and they two began fighting each other.

"I don't know why you've decided to show your ugly face here," said Maxi as he punched Astaroth's chest. "But all I know is, I'm taking your ugliness out of here."

"You wish!" retorted Astaroth, yanking on Maxi's hair. "When I defeat you, Algol is so going to have to give me that one million dollars."

"Let go of my hair!" snapped Maxi as he elbowed Astaroth. "And what do you mean Algol's going to give you a million bucks?"

Realizing that he had accidentally let something important slip, Astaroth doubled his efforts to get rid of Maxi. As the two struggled to kill each other, they edged closer and closer to the window until Astaroth slipped in the mess of buttery popcorn. Before falling out, he grabbed onto Maxi's hair and the two fell out of the window.

Rock was starting to wake up but then Astaroth and Maxi landed on top of him and gave him a concussion. Astaroth and Maxi didn't suffer too much damage since Rock acted as a rather comfy cushion for their fall but they still got knocked out. Three guys dressed in blacksuits arrived ten minutes later and they sighed. The tall guy pushed his cool dark sunglasses up his nose and said, "And how are we suppose to carry them out of here? I thought Algol said that there was only one guy?"

The middle guy nudged Maxi's body with his foot. "Those two big guys look like they weigh a ton. This one doesn't seem that heavy though."

The last guy shrugged. "I had a feeling this would happen. So..." He snapped his fingers and Lizardman, Mitsurugi and Yoshimitsu showed up.

"Why the hell are we here?" grumbled Mitsurugi.

"We need help dragging these guys to the limousine," answered one of the blacksuits.

"Shshsh (I just want to go back to our luxurious hotel room already)," thought Lizardman.

"So thou called us here to help you?" asked Yoshimitsu with disbelief. "I was happily simmering in the hot tub at the pool and thou called us here for this?"

The guys wearing the blacksuits looked at each other before pulling out three cheques. "Here's your pay. We'll notify Algol of the expenses later."

Mitsurugi, Lizardman and Yoshimitsu looked at the cheques and their eyes widened. "Ok, I call carrying Maxi," said Yoshimitsu.

* * *

><p>Status of the Soul Calibur crew, their rooms and points…<p>

Room 1-Raphael

Room 2-Zasalamel

Room 3-Amy (discovered something she shouldn't have and is kidnapped by Algol's secret agents) 20 points

Room4-Lizardman (missing and whereabouts is unknown) 10 points

Room 5-Siegfried

Room 6-Nightmare

Room 7-Hilde

Room 8-Tira

Room 9-Setsuka

Room 10-Mitsurugi (hospitalized and is getting his stomach pumped) 10 points

Room 11-Maxi (got pulled out of a window by Astaroth when the golem slipped on buttery popcorn) 30 points

Room12- Rock (defeated by the craxy axe man aka Astaroth and tossed out the window) 30 points

Room 13-Kilik

Room 14-Xianghua

Room 15-Ivy (launched out of a window and out of the trial) 10 points

Room 16-Cervantes (thrown into the garden by Raphael's team and taken by zombies) 20 points

Room 17-Yoshimitsu (taken by zombies) 20 points

Room 18-Taki

Room 19-Sophitia

Room 20-Hwang

Room 21-Cassandra

Room 22-Seong-Mina (either burnt or eaten by a very angry mama dragon) 30 points

Room 23-Talim (sacrificed herself to save her team and taken by zombies) 20 points

Room 24-Yun-Seong

Mystery Room-Voldo

* * *

><p>Darkwings13: I was in the mood to write something humorous so I decided to update this story. And I know some of you have been dying to read this so I felt bad for making you all wait so long. Is anyone interested in knowing how the losers are living? If so, I'll write a chapter about them later. Just a note, but I'm sick of writing the translator translating what Voldo said so just to let you know, they all understand what he's saying because the translator still translates it. I'm just not writing it down. Anyway, I want to thank those who favorited this story, and to those who review. I couldn't have written this much without you.<p> 


	21. Bad Beginnings

"Oh heavenly Zeus... He's going to... I can't look..."thought Sophitia as she and Setsuka as they watched 'Night of the Dead Guys' and Sophitia quietly prayed to Hephaestus that such a thing will never, never ever happen because after the whole previous zombie fiasco, she was tired of living dead guys (oxymoron).

"Why did we watch this again?" asked Setsuka. "I was actually in the mood for a kungfu type of movie.

Adjusting her seat on the black sofa, Sophita looked around the dark room and its scary furniture and said, "Well, the atmoshpere in this room was perfect for a horror movie so I thought...Oh never mind, I don't want to watch this anymore. If Patroklos and Pyrrha sees me like this, I'll lose my tough mom image!"

Setsuka shrugged and turned off the T.V. "Where's Maxi anyway? Making some popcorn shouldn't take this long." She looked at the creepy grandfather clock and noted that it was exactly 11 am. "You don't think something happened to him do you?"

Sophitia looked around the room worriedly. "I don't know but we should probably go and look for him."

Letting out a tired sigh, Setsuka nodded and started to leave the living room with Sophitia following closely behind her. After awhile, they ran into a strange scene... Well... to be more accurate the ran into some strange sounds...

"Eauhk! Eeeek! Ackk! The pain! It burns! Stop it you madwoma- Owwwwwwwwww!"

The two lovely ladies looked at each other with wide eyes and then they turned and looked at the bathroom where the screams were coming from. A sign that said 'ENTER AND DIE! XOXOXOX" was taped to the door with some pink tape gave Sophitia an even stranger vibe and she whispered to Setsuka, "Should we move on or investigate this?"

"It doesn't sound like any of our team members so I'm thinking we should just move on," whispered the Japanese woman.

"Er... alright then." As the two were about to leave, the door slammed open... hot steam came out... accompanied by a screaming Nightmare who was wearing a white towel around his waist. His armor sparkled like the light from a golden sun... er never mind. It was just really sparkly and clean and there was less than 0.000000001% of bacteria on it. But he ran away before they could be really sure and Tira walked out of the bathroom with a giant steel brush and in her hand, she held a bottle of super strength toilet cleaner.

Setsuka blinked a few times before saying, "You cleaned Nightmare's armor with toilet cleaning solution?"

Tira gave a curt humph and shoved the bottle in Setsuka's face. "It guranteed that it would remove 99.9999999999% of gross stuff and make the toilet, I mean the armor really clean. Hygiene was never one of Nightmare's strong point and I decided to remedy that."

"She's in her gloomy mood," whispered Sophitia to Setsuka. "We should leave while we have the chance."

Setsuka nodded and said, "Well, it's been nice talking to you... We'll just take our leave now."

But Tira blocked their path with a snide smile. "You two aren't going anywhere. We need some help for a big event that's happening today and you two will make great helpers. Or else."

"Or else what?" asked Setsuka challengingly.

"Shhsss!" Sophitia pushed Setsuka behind her and tiredly said to Tira, "Tira, we'd rather not. What kind of event are you talking about anyway?"

"Hehehe! It's Hua hua and Zassy's anniversary!" exclaimed Tira excitedly as she turned into her jolly side.

"I hate it when she does that," thought Sophtia. "Oh yea, I forgot you people were holy Hephaestus hammers! Zassy is, I mean Zasalamel REALLY is Xianghua's... Oh my Zeus..." mumbled Sophitia in horror. "I thought Kilik was just jumping to conclusions when he thought that Zasalamel was the one but I guess he was right."

"We'll help you with the anniversary!"

Tira and Sophitia both looked at Setsuka with a confused expresssion. "We will?" asked Sophitia.

Dragging Sophitia away from Tira who staring after them, Setsuak began whispering in Sophitia's war and the Greek warrior smiled. "I like that idea..." Turning back to Tira, she said, "Ok Tira! We'll help you."

Clapping her hands together, Tira laughed. "I knew you would see things my way! It's about time too because I was getting impatient." Her eyes sparkled madly and she said, "Now, go find Hua Hua and tell her that I told you guys to help out. I'm going to go look for Nighty. I have to pick out his outfit for tonight." With that, Tira skipped away merrily and followed the wet trail of water Nightmare left behind.

"You know...Nightmare's just a floating blob or evil energy inside that now sparkly clean armor. Why is she in love with him again?" asked Setsuka.

"Because she's insane." Thinking about it, Sophitia added, "I don't think her gloomy side is too fond of him though."

"Whatever, let's just get going." Rubbing her hands together, Sophitia and Setsuka let out a low evil laugh. "Muahahah... This is going to be good."

* * *

><p>"PUSH HARDER!" shouted Hilde. "FOR YOUR HONOR! Ummm... And for your girlfriend Kilik."<p>

"For Xianghua!" Kilik charged forward at the door that had a sign that said, 'Secret passageway made by King Zefer the 36th Pharaoh that leads to the world above'. Why there was such a sign...well no one knew. All anyone cared about was getting out of this trap infested underground burial place infested with rotting mummies. Siegfried charged the door as well but again, it still didn't blast open in a beautiful and awestuck display of splinters from the combined force of the two manly men.

Cassandra cracked her knuckled and rolled her shoulders. "Move out of the way guys. I'll handle this."

Seigfried and Kilik arched an eyebrow but they backed away slowly as Cassandra did some more stretches. Finally, the strong Greek warrior let out a battle scream that would put the battle god Ares to shame and charged forward. At the last second, she turned and her butt smashed the door to pieces in a fierce explosion of splintered wood. Siegfried lowered his hand that was protecting his faces from the splintered wood since he didn't want another scar on his devastatingly gorgeous face and his mouth dropped open. "I... can't believe what just happened."

"So that's why she used her butt for her critical finish..." realized Kilik.

Cassandra smiled triumphantly at the two men and let out a dramatic sigh. "Men are so useless these days."

Hilde smiled and joined her friend's side and the two women began heading up the stairs. Snapping out of what happened, Kilik and Siegfried rushed toward the stair as well. After two levels of stairs...

The four came to a stop and they gasped. Kilik groaned and dropped to the ground. "By my master's 1000 yr old beard, why?"

They were standing at the entrance of a maze and Hilde said, "Maybe it won't be that hard?"

"Are you kidding me? It's the labyrinth from Soul Calibur 2!" shouted Kilik.

"I thought that was one of Raphael's entertainment stage for his amusement park," pointed out Cassandra. "It was suppose to be underground and near the Ungerground Buddhist stage (Taki's stage from SC3)."

* * *

><p>From the high-tech room, Algol chuckled to himself. Moving that giant Labyrinth under the giant haunted mansion had been difficult. Very difficult... So he added a nasty suprise in it just to make sure that things would remain interesting. Turning to one of the technician who was playing Angry Birds on his computer, Algol coughed.<p>

The guy immediately turned off the game but it made him really sad since he just reached a high score. "Sir, what is it?"

"How's our T.V rating for the show?"asked Algol.

The technician checked and replied, "We currently have ten milllion viewers and I think we've recieved a mark of 4.7/5 sir."

"Hmmmm, that's pretty good." Algol said happily. "Ok, let's get back to action." And they turned back to the T.V screen with Kilik, Siegfried, Hilde and Cassandra wandering around the maze.

* * *

><p>"Ahhh!" shouted Yun-Seong as he hurtled downward. Finally, he came to a stop and crushed someone under him. Which was good for him since it cushioned his fall but it was bad for the flattened dude. Who was...<p>

"How many times must this scenario repeat itself?" shouted Raphael, pushing Yun-Seong off of him angrily. "Why do I always have to see you... no. Correct that. WHY DO YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO SHOW UP AT THE WORST TIMES?"

But Yun-Seong was holding tightly on to Toad Hwang and staring at Raphael's shiny tooth and nothing Raphael said was getting through to his head.

"Hey! Are you listening to me?"

Blinking, Yun-Seong said, "Huh?"

"I said we're being chased by mummies!"

A large cage slammed down and trapped the two... Raphael groaned. "Aww $%^#$!"

Hwang let out a slow croak and Raphaeel glanced at it. "Why do you have a frog?"

"He's a toad."

"Whatever." Raphael looked away and saw the approaching mummies and he sighed. "At least they can't get us since we're inside this thing."

* * *

><p>Algol said to one of the technician, "Press the button for the knockout gas. Oh, and I'll be visting the losers for a little bit so make sure nothing stupid happens. Well." Algol rephrased it and said, "If the people in there do something stupid, then that's ok. It'll boost the rating. But just make sure it doesn't get too out of hand."<p>

* * *

><p>"What's that smell?" asked Yun-Seong. He raised his head up and pointed to the ceiling. "Uh... is that pink gas or am I crazy."<p>

Raphael looked at the heirglyphic walls and two holes appeared. Soon, knock out gas flowed out of there as well. "Well... I certainly hope you're crazy but unfortunately, I'm seeing the same thing." Soon, the two guys passed out and Toad Hwang croaked gloomily.

* * *

><p>Taki tapped her foot impatiently in the dark creepy hallway and said, "Hurry up and get out of there Zasalamel. It's already 3pm and you need to watch your wedding video..." The ninja paused as Zasalamel stepped out of the room. "You know, you should come with me when I seal demons. If they saw you dressed like this they'd sealed themselves away before they die of laughter. Hahh... hahaha!" laughed the normally stoic ninja.<p>

Rolling his eyes, he said, "Who the hell chose this outfit anyway?" He was wearing loose purple dress pants and a red vest over a pink dress shirt and there was even a red rose pinned to his shirt. And he smelled like rose water.

Taki smirked and said, "Who'd you think?"

"Was it her gloomy or jolly side?"

"Jolly."

"Curse it," said Zasalamel. "I'm going to buy her a real fashion magazine when this is all over. Wait here, I'm not going anywhere in this outfit." He went back into his room to change and Taki sighed and continued waiting.

* * *

><p>"Nighty! Come on! I want to see how you look in that outfit I picked out for you," whined Tira. "Hurry up! I want to see Hua Hua and Zassy's wedding video!"<p>

Five minutes later...

"That's it! I'm tearing down this door and dragging you out right now!" shouted Tira in her gloomy side. She latched her hand onto the door and with inhuman strength, she ripped the door off its hinges and gasped. "Who are you? And why do you look even scarier than Nightmare! Hey! Get back here! Where are you going with him? "

Spawn gave her the peace symbol before covering himself with his cape and disappearing out of sight with Nightmare.

Nightmare gave a big sigh of relief. "Thanks man. I don't think I could've stand to be in that place for another hour! So... the place you mention where the rest of the losers are staying... Is it really that comfortable? I've been stuck in a basement for three days and I've endured the worst bath in history that would make babies cry so I'm really looking forward to that spa you talked about."

Spawn rolled his eyes and muttered, "What a baby... But then again, this place is getting kinda crazy..."

* * *

><p>"Come on! How long does it take to put on a stinking outfit!" Taki pounded on Zasalamel's door some more and said, "I didn't think you'd be as vain as Raphael but I guess I'm wrong."<p>

Zasalamel's voice came through the door and he said, "Raphael's style... is nothing compared to my clothes."

The door opened and Taki's mouth dropped open. Zasalamel was wearing a really spiffy black suit and his Armani sunglasses made him the picture of epic coolness. "Isn't that the really expensive clothes Yun-Seong bought?"

"Yeah."

Taki quickly whipped out a camera at ninja speed and snapped a picture. "This is going to sell for alot of money. I think some of Raphael's and Siegfried's fangirls might switch over to your side."

Zasalamel smirked and adjusted his suit. "After all these years, I still got my looks."

Taki suppressed the urge to laugh and merely replied, "Well, let's get going and watch that wedding video of yours."

* * *

><p>At the hidden room that Voldo chose that set off this anniversary fiasco...<p>

Xianghua crossed her legs and peered at the two newcomer. "So you're saying Tira sent you to help with my anniversary?"

"Uhhh... yea," lied Sophitia nervously. "See, one of her ravens even led us directly to you." Everyone looked at the black bird that was perched on Voldo's arm.

Shrugging, Xianghua said, "Well, if Tira sent you then I suppose it's fine. Now, go to the living room and put in this tape. Me and honey boo should be there in a few minutes so I want everything to be set when I get there. Got it?"

Grabbing the tape, Setsuka was trying not to laugh at the fact that Xianghua just called Zasalamel honey boo so she just nodded and left with Sophitia. "Ok, let's commence the plan to ruin this event."

Sophtia said, "What do you have in mind?"

Laughing, Setsuka replied, "Xianghua said that the wedding video was about three hours long right? It's 3:30 pm and dinner starts at seven after the video right?"

"Yea..."

"I'm going to hack the vido tape player to play the movie in slow motion and drag it as long as possible," said Setsuak snidely. "You go find, Kilik since he'd be the perfect disaster for this date for Zasalamel. And I'm beginning to think that Xianghua is possessed. Anyway, while everyone's watching the video, say you have to go to the bathroom and commence the search."

"Got it!"

* * *

><p>"Everyone stop!" commanded Cassandra imperiously.<p>

"Huh?" Kilik ran into an invisible wall and he slid to the ground with a groan. "What the..."

Seigfried stepped up beside the Greek girl and said, "How did you know that?"

"Know what?"

"The invisible wall..."

Cassandra laughed and said, "There's a sign that said so."

Everyone turned to look at the sign that said;

Dear people,

To make this maze alittle harder, I've thrown in some invisible wall projections as well as a monster that will soon smell your delicious human meat as well as Hilde's expensive perfume called 'Pretty Princess'. And then it'll kill you so you guys better find a way out of here fast. So anyway, good luck on getting out of here alive!

With love and laughter... Algol

"I don't know whether I should be more concerned as to why Hilde's wearing such a girly perfume..."Siegfried looked at Hilde who blushed. "Or whether we should be more worried about the invisible walls and a monster."

"A monster... hmmm..." Cassandra suddenly gasped and said, "Guys! I know what's the monster!"

"What? What is it?" said everyone at the same time.

"It's that thing right behind you!"

Hilde, Siegfried and Kilik turned around to see a really big and scary...

"Minotaur! Run!" shrieked Cassandra. They all turned to run and they smacked themselves into the invisible wall.

"Curse you... Algol..." said the small group.

"For my homeland! I will not embarrass myself while my people are watching their princess on their T.V!" Hilde sweeped a low kick at the minotaur and knocked him to the floor. "Now's our chance everyone! Run!" She leaped over the minotaur's body and the rest of the group followed suit.

* * *

><p>Status of the Soul Calibur crew, their rooms and points…<p>

Room 1-Raphael

Room 2-Zasalamel

Room 3-Amy (discovered something she shouldn't have and is kidnapped by Algol's secret agents) 20 points

Room4-Lizardman (missing and whereabouts is unknown) 10 points

Room 5-Siegfried

Room 6-Nightmare(kidnapped by Spawn... willingly) 30 points

Room 7-Hilde

Room 8-Tira

Room 9-Setsuka

Room 10-Mitsurugi (hospitalized and is getting his stomach pumped) 10 points

Room 11-Maxi (got pulled out of a window by Astaroth when the golem slipped on buttery popcorn) 30 points

Room12- Rock (defeated by the craxy axe man aka Astaroth and tossed out the window) 30 points

Room 13-Kilik

Room 14-Xianghua

Room 15-Ivy (launched out of a window and out of the trial) 10 points

Room 16-Cervantes (thrown into the garden by Raphael's team and taken by zombies) 20 points

Room 17-Yoshimitsu (taken by zombies) 20 points

Room 18-Taki

Room 19-Sophitia

Room 20-Hwang

Room 21-Cassandra

Room 22-Seong-Mina (either burnt or eaten by a very angry mama dragon) 30 points

Room 23-Talim (sacrificed herself to save her team and taken by zombies) 20 points

Room 24-Yun-Seong

Mystery Room-Voldo

Darkwings13:Good news for those of you have been waiting for this story to be updated... I'm going to update this story along with my other one for now. Well, after so long, I was having troble getting back on track with this so... Is it still funny?


	22. Slow Motion and Fast Motion

"Oh! Our wedding video... It'll bring back so many beautiful memories for us honey boo," sobbed Xianghua, clutching onto Zasalamel's arm as the (unlikely) couple walked down the creep hallway. Taki and Voldo were right behind them and Zasalamel could hear them chuckled every once in awhile. He sighed and wished that the day was over already. The fact that there was a wedding video of a wedding that he has no clue about it, was also freaking him out. "Algol must be behind this..." he thought to himself quietly.

As they walked into the large, fancy, and incredibly dusty living room with it's equally dusty furniture, two things stood out like a sore thumb. "Setsuka! Sophitia! What are you doing here?" shouted Zasalamel

Setsuka let out a slow grin and pointed to the T.V. "Oh... nothing. Well, your wife told us to set up your wedding video and that's what we did."

He was about to say something but Xianghua quickly dragged him to the couch and sat down beside him. "Good job girls! Now, hit the play button! And whoever interrupts this movie dies! So everyone, be quiet!" She turned to Zasalamel and said, "Do you want any food or drinks before we start honey?"

"Uhh... no thank you. Dear..." replied Zasalamel.

Taki, Voldo, and Setsuka sat down on the brown sofa nearby but Sophitia raised her hand and said, "I... I need to use the washroom." Sophitia couldn't believe she was asking for permission for something like this and she felt rather embarrassed.

Xianghua arched an eyebrow but then she sighed. "Fine. Go and do what you must do. But hurry back ok?"

Sophitia nodded and quickly ran off. Xianghua leaned back into the sofa and pressed the play button. After less than two minutes...

"What is going on?" shouted Zasalamel. "Why is it playing in slow motion?"

The opening credits were still moving on the screen at a snail's pace and Setsuka shrugged. "I don't know. I just put the video in. Anyway, this will give you two lovebirds more time to revel in those beautiful memories."

Taki's ninja senses were tinkling and she knew that Setsuka was up to something. Something bad... Something MUST be done. "I'll fix it."

"No, you might bust it," objected Setsuka. "Then the whole evening would be ruined."

Before anyone could say anything, Tira arrived at the living room and screamed, "Someone nabbed Nighty!"

"What?" cried Zasalamel, leaping off the couch. "That means we're down another member?"

Tira began crying and she said, "I'm worried Zassy! That guy looked really scary! What is he going to do with Nighty?"

"Let's go find him!" suggested Zasalamel rather enthusiastically.

"Oh no you don't!" Xianghua pulled on his fancy tie and he flopped back on the sofa. "Taki and Voldo will go."

"Shs(Us)?"

"Yes you." Xianghua clapped her hand and said, "I want you guys to find Tira's boyfriend before I finish this movie. So hurry up and get going. And I don't want to hear another peep. My wedding is playing."

Zasalamel pushed his dark sunglasses up alittle higher and said, "Errr... yea, you guys go do that. I'll be fine." He watched as Voldo and Taki gave him worried looks but they followed his orders by getting up and following a hysterical Tira out of the living room. He then leaned back and pretended to watch but in reality, he was going to take a nap. His dark and expensive sunglasses would hide the fact that his eyes were closed. Now... if only he had earplugs so that he could block out Xianghua's giggles...

* * *

><p>At a TEN STAR HOTEL (is that even possible?)...<p>

"Algol? What are you doing here?" Seong-Mina choked on her drink as she saw the Hero King approach the bar. Ivy, Nightmare, and Yoshimitsu were sitting there as well and they all looked at him expectantly. Except for Nightmare who screamed, "I'm not going back! You can't make meeeeeeee!"

Everyone watched as the Azure knight ran off. After a few seconds, Ivy took a sip of her cocktail and asked, "So... why are you here?"

Algol crossed his arms and looked at the elegant table, the fancy glasses and the really expensive alcohols they were drinking and he arched an eyebrow. "I see that you guys are enjoying yourselves." They were actually sitting in a man made tropical garden with palm trees and the huge windows let in plenty of sunlight. He actually saw Lizardman sunbathing in one of the trees. Clearing his throat, he said, "Back on topic, where's Talim?"

"What does thou want with her?" asked Yoshimitsu curiously.

"Have you guys been watching the competition on T.V?" questioned Algol.

"Of course!" Seong-Mina snapped her finger and a hole opened up in the roof. A giant T.V held by an iron rod descended down and it accidently knocked Lizardman out of the tree. The Korean girl shouted, "Sorry! But I told you to find another place to sunbath!" They heard some angry hissing noise from Lizardman before a coconut fell down from one from one of the palm trees and knocked him out. Wincing, Seong-Mina turned to the T.V and pushed the power button on the remote controller the bartender had just gave her.

They watched as Kilik, Siegfried, Cassandra and Hilde ran away from the angry minotaur and Ivy said, "My my... this is getting interesting."

"More like violent," mumbled Yoshimitsu.

Algol cleared his throat and said, "Yes, but let's take a look at what Raphael and Yun-Seong are doing."

Everyone turned to look at the T.V and Ivy chuckled. "Well... at least they're hanging out together."

"Literally," said Mitsurugi, ordering some more Canadian Beer. Indeed... Yun-Seong and Raphael were both blindfolded and tied up by their feet to the paw of a ten feet sphinx sculpture. The humour in this was that the sphinx statue had her mouth opened and they look liked mouses being dangled by their tails as she was about to swallow them.

Chugging down another beer, Mitsurugi grinned. "Well, it looks like they're going to have a hard time getting out of this one.

Algol chuckled. "Yes... it will be pretty exciting. Now Ivy, you're coming with me as well as Talim. I need you two for alittle something."

"Oh really?" asked Ivy, putting down her fruit cocktail to look at the Hero King. "What do you have in mind?"

"Oh my wind!"

Everyone turned to see Talim entering the place with a first aid kit. She held the kit up and said, "The wind said Lizardman got knocked out by a coconut so I thought I would come to treat him. But then," She pointed to the T.V screen with Raphael and Yun-Seong and continued in a panicky voice, "What's happening to them?"

"Ah! Talim! Good timing!" said a cheerful Algol. "You and Ivy are coming with me back to the haunted mansion."

Hearing that, Talim paled. Within a split second she ran off and the kit flew out of her hand. Everyone watched as the kit sailed high over their heads all the way over to Lizardman who was starting to become conscious. Until the medical kit of life conked him on the head and knocked him out again. With a sigh, Algol started to chase after the priestess and he yelled over his shoulders to Ivy, "Take a seat in the limousine parked in front of the hotel. I'll be right back with Talim."

"There's like a million limousines parked around this fancy hotel!"

"No duh! It's the one with the giant bumper sticker that says 'Soul Calibur' on it."

Ivy shook her head and thought about it. "Eww.. It's... not very classy to have a giant bumper sticker like that."

* * *

><p>Talim ran as fast as she could possibly could but then she backpedaled when she noticed Nightmare standing in a corridor with a lampshade over his head. "Nightmare? What are you doing?"<p>

Nightmare took off the lampshade and shushed her. "Quiet, Algol's looking for me! He wants to drag me back to that horrible mansion."

"Me too!" gasped Talim. "Oh, what are we going to do Nightmare?"

Thinking hard, Nightmare suddenly snapped his fingers and said, " We team up and run."

Talim blinked up at the Azure Knight. But then the wind whispered to her that Algol was getting close so she bobbed her head and said, "Algol's close. Let's hurry!"

With that, she and Nightmare dashed off. As they approached the fancy staircase that led down to the main floor, Algol's commanding voice broke through the air and all the guests and hotel people stopped. "Stop! I need you for the show Talim!"

"No! Nightmare, let's get out of here!" shrieked Talim as they ran for the staircase.

The two leaped onto the railing and slid down the thing in a very cool manner. Some of the rich people, celebrities and other people that could afford this fancy hotel whipped out their phones and began taking pictures. "Nightmare! You're the hottest villian ever!" cried a rich girl. "Please glared at me with those eyes of yours!"

Nightmare rudely pushed her aside as he and Talim ran past. "Outta my way crazy! I already have a crazy girlfriend and trust me, one is more than enough!"

Talim shouted a hasty apology to the girl before saying to Nightmare, "Technically, you have two girlfriends. Tira's jolly side and gloomy side remember?"

"It's still Tira in the end." Nightmare suddenly noticed a bell boy pushing a luggage trolley full of... luggage of course. He ran over, stopped the bell boy and said, "You... whew... push me and Talim to the elevator... area. Woah, I'm really out of shape."

The bell boy blinked and said, "Umm... even though you two are Soul Calibur superstars, I'm not sure if this is a good idea."

"JUST DO IT OR I'LL EAT YOUR SOUL!"

The bell boy immediately panicked and ran out of there screaming his head off. Talim sighed and looked at Nightmare. "You could've said please."

"Fine. Talim, will you please push me?"

Talim smiled and nodded when he said please. "That's more like it Night-" She suddenly realized what he just said and she paused.

Two minutes later...

"Faster Talim! Faster! Algol's going to catch us at this rate!" shouted Nightmare as the small priestess pushed him on the luggage trolley. "Hurry! Didn't you have breakfast?"

A huge pile of luggage sat behind them as they left and Talim huffed, "Just... because... you said please... I'm... going to... do this... for you... But you do... realize... that your armour... is more than... triple my weight."

"Watch where you're going! We're going to crash!" shouted Nightmare as they rushed past people.

Cervantes had just walked out from the elevators and as he stepped onto the plush and pretty red carpet, he suddenly heard people screaming and getting out of the way of something. He turned his head and when he saw Nightmare on a luggage trolley rushing towards him, his eyes widened. "What in the name of my ship is going on?"

"It's called getting out of the way!" Nightmare shouted back to Cervantes.

The immortal pirate quickly turned back to the elevator and he began pushing the elevator button like crazy. "Open! Open! For Soul Edge's sake open!" Finally, the elevator began to open and Cervantes squeezed himself through. He began pounding on the close button as Nightmare got closer and closer. "Close! Close! Close darn it! AHHHHH!" Nightmare on the luggage trolley, and Talim behind the luggage trolley rushed through and they squashed the pirate against the elevator wall. As the elevator doors closed, a crowd of confused people, hotel employees, and Algol stood outside it. "Darn it. They managed to escape."

* * *

><p>"You want to buy this or not?" asked Valeria with an annoyed expression.<p>

Siegfried, Kilik, Hilde, and Cassandra looked at the lovely shopkeeper with a confused expression. They had been wandering around the grand labyrinth when suddenly, they ran into the three shopkeepers who had a table of stuff laid out in front of them. Naturally, they paused to see what in the world was going on and Hilde said, "What in the world is going on?"

The Chinese girl, Hualin, pushed her glasses up her nose and answered, "Well, there's a giant hungry minotaur after you... Kilik's girlfriend is snuggling up to Zasalamel as the two watch some kind of anniversary video...and things just doesn't look very good for you guys."

Lynette giggled and she gestured to the stuff on the table. "But maybe we can help. You can choose three things on this table that will help you in this labyrinth. But for every object, you must pay something dearly."

Cassandra gulped and she said, "What do we have to pay with?"

Valeria smiled and said, "For three objects... three people must stay behind in this labyrinth and fight the minotaur to the death."

"WHAT!" shouted Seigfried. "That's a terrible deal!"

Lynette pointed to the objects on the table and said, "Look at the weapons and stuff we have here. If you pick wisely, the three people who stays behind will stand a good chance of surviving."

Hilde pursed her lip and looked at the stuff on sale. Her eyes noticed a map and she immediately pointed to it. "That map will be essential to our escape."

Siegfried eyes roamed around until he noticed a shotgun and a sword. He deliberated for awhile but then he pointed to the gun. "If we buy this, we should be able to kill that minotaur easily."

Leaning in close, Kilik searched around until he found the perfect item. "Guys! I need this!" He whipped out a formal looking suit and some dress shoes. "With this, Xianghua will fall for me again!"

"I don't think she's as shallow as that," said Cassandra. "And that thing won't boost our chance of surival."

Kilik's eyes welled up with tears as he dramatically looked upward. A strange glint of light appeared in his eyes and a random spotlight turned on and everyone shielded their eyes as the sparkling bright light rained down on Kilik. And he began a long and passionate speech about how much he loved Xianghua.

Five minutes later...

"Go... go to her you... brave soul. We will stay behind and face the Minotaur," sobbed Hilde. She and Cassandra grabbed a tissue from the tissue box on the table and the two girls blew their noses loudly. Siegfried was looking away so that no one could see him crying. Too bad for him a camera on the ceiling caught every single teardrops and ten million people saw this on their T.V.

The three shopkeepers were moved as well and Lynette said, "We'll make you look like a god by the time we're done with you. If Xianghua doesn't fall for you, then I would be really surprised."

Snapping her fingers, the table descended downward into a hidden porthole. Except for the map, the shotgun, and the suit. Lynette threw the suit at Kilik and said, "We'll take you to the exit and we'll begin your makeover once we get back up the mansion. As for your friends, they have the map and once they defeat the minotaur, they can get out of here too."

As Kilik and the three shopkeepers ran off, the monk turned around for a brief second and bowed to his friends who were risking alot for him and his future (preferably with Xianghua since he didn't really want to end up like an old but cool hermit like his master). "Everyone! I thank you from the bottom of my heart! If you guys survive, I'll treat you to dinner."

"Just go and get Xianghua back! We're rooting for you!" cheered Cassandra. Hilde and Siegfried shouted something similar and they wished Kilik good luck as he disappeared out of sight.

* * *

><p>Taki looked at her watch and said, "Tira, it's getting late. We have to go and prepare the anniversary dinner for Zasalamel and Xianghua."<p>

Looking inside a dirty closet full of old outfits, Tira shook her head. "I'm not stopping until I find Nighty!"

"Sshshshs (Is that him)?" Voldo pointed to the window and it looked like Nightmare was peering into the room.

"Nighty!" squealed Tira happily as she ran towards the window.

Taki gasped and shouted, "That's not Nightmare! Someone just taped a poster of him to the outside of the window!" She watched as the crazy girl flung herself at the window; shattering it and probably falling to her death. She and Voldo ran over to see what happened and they opened their mouths in shock and relief.

Tira was hugging the poster while her ravens had quickly grabbed onto pieces of her outfit and was struggling to keep their insane mistress airborne. Well...Tira finally realized that she was just hugging paper and she turned into her gloomy mood. "Who the hell did this?"

Someone in a helicopter flew toward them and the guy shouted, "Miss Tira! You have jumped out of the mansion so you're now out of this trial."

"WHAT?" Tira chucked the poster at the guy and it stuck to his face. "How dare you people trick me like this! I'm going to tear you to pieces! Let's get them!"

Tira whistled for more ravens and they quickly came and started attacking the poor guy who shouted to the pilot. "Let's get out of here!" The pilot pressed some controls and the helicopter hightailed out of there while Tira flew after them, with her ravens carrying her. Every so often when the wind blew towards them, Taki could hear snatches of "I'm going to kill you!" or "I'll rip your heart out!" or "I'll tear you apart" and more violent words. Gulping nervously, she turned to Voldo and said, "It looks like we're going to have to tell Zasalamel about this."

* * *

><p>"Look! The minotaur is here!" shouted Cassandra loudly. Siegfried and Hilde quickly jumped to action as the princess of Wolfkrone whipped out the shotgun.<p>

Siegfried narrowed his eyes as the monster approached and he said, "Wait till it comes closer so that we'll get a better shot at its heart Hilde."

Hilde raised the gun up and aimed. "I'm ready when you are."

Bouncing on the heels of her foot, Cassandra shouted when the minotaur charged at them. "NOW HILDE! FIRE!"

Hilde pulled the trigger... and a piece of paper flew out. "What is this?" cried Hilde in shock.

Snatching the paper, Siegfried read it and he turned pale. "It says 'Ammo sold separately'... Curse it! I knew I should've went for the sword!"

"GAME... OVER..."

The three warriors turned around to look as the minotaur, with his red eyes looking at the hungrily say that. Cassandra sighed and said, "At least Kilik made it..."

* * *

><p>"Honey! Are you sleeping?"<p>

Zasalamel eyes snapped open at Xianghua's shrill scream and he was glad the sunglasses hid the fact that he was indeed...sleeping. "Of-of course not."

"It sure looked like it," whispered a grinning Setsuka to Xianghua.

"How would you know? Do you have X-ray vision?" retorted Zasalamel angrily.

Suddenly, Taki and Voldo burst into the living room. "Zasalamel! Tira jumped out of a window and she's now out of the trial! We've lost another member!"

Oh my goodness! Is she alright?" cried Xianghua. Setsuka was also distracted by this and she went over to hear Taki's explanation.

Under normal circumstances, Zasalamel would've walked over and demanded an answer but right now, there was something more important he had to do... He snatched the remote controller and fast forwarded the movie at 500x speed. When he got to the last three minutes of the movie, he had it play back to it's slow motion self. Stealthily, he placed the remote controller back on the side table and said to Taki, "So... what happened?"

* * *

><p>Status of the Soul Calibur crew, their rooms and points…<p>

Room 1-Raphael

Room 2-Zasalamel

Room 3-Amy (discovered something she shouldn't have and is kidnapped by Algol's secret agents) 20 points

Room4-Lizardman (missing and whereabouts is unknown) 10 points

Room 5-Siegfried (defeated by the minotaur because he didn't pick the sword. He picked the gun) 30 points

Room 6-Nightmare(kidnapped by Spawn... willingly) 30 points

Room 7-Hilde (defeated by the minotaur because her boyfriend chose a shotgun) 30 points

Room 8-Tira (got duped by a poster and leaped out the window. Currently chasing after a guy for revenge) 30 points

Room 9-Setsuka

Room 10-Mitsurugi (was hospitalized and finished getting his stomach pumped) 10 points

Room 11-Maxi (got pulled out of a window by Astaroth when the golem slipped on buttery popcorn) 30 points

Room12- Rock (defeated by the crazy axe man aka Astaroth and tossed out the window) 30 points

Room 13-Kilik

Room 14-Xianghua

Room 15-Ivy (launched out of a window and out of the trial) 10 points

Room 16-Cervantes (thrown into the garden by Raphael's team and taken by zombies) 20 points

Room 17-Yoshimitsu (taken by zombies) 20 points

Room 18-Taki

Room 19-Sophitia

Room 20-Hwang

Room 21-Cassandra(defeated by the minotaur since Hilde's boyfriend chose the gun) 30 points

Room 22-Seong-Mina (either burnt or eaten by a very angry mama dragon) 30 points

Room 23-Talim (sacrificed herself to save her team and taken by zombies) 20 points

Room 24-Yun-Seong

Mystery Room-Voldo

* * *

><p>Darkwings13: I would like to take the opportunity to thank all of those who have favorited this story.<p>

*ThalieXVII, Cristal Knight, Uppgreyedd, xXLilMissCellist, Ilyana Shinzo1216, Elizander, kurohana90210, CRYSTALTEAR020, diegofu, Raphael949, AngelEyes87, MixedAddict, Crimson Calkaka, nati1342, 1wngdngl, and RenegadeZabuzaMomochi *

I'm very grateful to you all and thank you so much for reading and favoriting this story. I shall continue doing my best and hopefully, you guys will continued enjoying this. ^^ It's going to be awhile till I updare because exams are coming up so I'm really sorry for that.


	23. Love Song

In the gloomy, dark, dirty, dusty, living room where the ending credits to the wedding video was playing on the T.V...

Zasalamel face-palmed and he shook his head. "Tira... I didn't think she would fall for something that stupid. Well... actually..."

"You thought she would fall for something stupid," finished Taki, crossing her arms over her chest and looking grim. "So that means..." Taki began counting in her head and said, "You, me, Voldo, Xianghua, the three Koreans... Hey, has anyone seen them around?" She turned to Voldo who shook his head.

Rubbing his eyes, Zasalamel groaned. "What a disaster. How many people does Raphael have?" He addressed this question at Setsuka who merely grinned and gave him the -I'm not telling you- look.

A blast from a car horn in Xianghua's hand killed everyone's ear drums for thirty seconds as she said, "Hey! We're forgetting about my anniversary here! I like Tira but there's no use crying over spilt milk so let's hurry and move on to the dinner part of my anniversary."

"What? I can't hear you!" shouted Setsuka, pointing to her ears.

What in the world is she saying?" asked Taki, shaking her head and trying to clear away the ringing in her ears.

Zasalamel hit his head a few times and put one hand over his ear. "Did you say you like elephants?"

"NO! I SAID WE'RE HAVING DINNER! HONEY!"

* * *

><p>After the communication issue was resolved (when everyone regained their hearing), everyone headed to the large dining room. Taki and Voldo had a bunch of candles lit on the giant oak table and there was also a candle chandelier above the table. The white piano sat a small distance away and the large windows were cleaned and even though you can't see anything out the window, the nice red curtains really helped with the decor. However, the pink balloons and streamers Tira had set around the room sort of ruined the elegant look but still... at least she tried...Anyway, a big vase holding some very beautiful red roses served as the centerpiece and the room smelled like a field of flowers that bloomed in the middle of spring. Too bad Zasalamel didn't appreciate this since he said, "You know the smell of the flowers is going to interfere with my sense of taste right?"<p>

Taki merely growled in reply. "You try finding roses in this place and then we'll talk. I had to send Voldo out in the garden to look for them and he nearly got eaten by zombies."

Zasalamel shrugged and sat down on the comfy chair and said, "I can't believe Raphael's team had this dining room while we got the lame one."

Setsuka was busy gaping at the changes made to her team's dining room. The last time she was in here, it looked like... well.. it looked like someone trashed the room and then they bought cheap furniture you could find in a garage sale and stuck it in there. But now it looked like the place belonged to a fancy rich guy! She turned her attention to the piano when Voldo started to play some romantic music on there and Taki was putting on a apron that said 'I HAVE NINJA COOKING SKILLS THAT I CANNOT REVEAL SO DON'T BOTHER ASKING'.

"Hey, are you done looking?" asked Taki impatiently to Setsuka. "I'm on cooking duty and you're coming with me since Tira's gone."Setsuka thought about all the mischief she could wreck in the kitchen and she quickly dashed towards the kitchen with Taki yelling after her. "Make sure you don't burn anything! Xianghu- I mean the ghost doesn't like eating anything that's burnt!"

When the two disappeared, Zasalamel turned back nervously to that table and looked at Xianghua who was batting her eyelashes at him. "Honey... aren't you going to say something?"

"Uhhhh..."

This was going to be the longest dinner of his life. And that's saying something since he's lived for god knows how long and he's been to quite a few strange ceremonies that had dinners that lasted for three days. That was confusing and it took him awhile to get used to the idea that he was eating dinner at 9am.

* * *

><p>After searching around for awhile, Sophitia still had no luck in finding her sister or any of her team mates. It had been quite awhile so like any other human being, she had needs that needed to be fulfilled. Aka, she needed to use the washroom. As she headed for the nearest one, the man who stepped out of it made her heart go 'thumpity thump thump thuuuummmp' and if there was a heart specialist around, he would translate it and say, "OMG! That guy is so hot!" Indeed, Sophitia felt a little guilty as she had those thoughts since she was married and all. Nonetheless, she couldn't help but blush at the man standing before her. He was wearing a tailored black suit that had a slim and fitting cut which hugged his perfect body perfectly and the dark sunglasses he was wearing made him look so...cool! His wavy short brown hair was gelled and styled and... Sophitia sniffed the air and thought that his cologne smelled so good... and so manly...<p>

"Uhh... Sophitia, what are you doing?" asked Kilik as the Greek woman had unconsciously moved closer to him as she was smelling him and they were inappropriately close.

"Huh? KILIK!" Sophitia gasped and leaped backward from him. But then she brightened up and hugged him. "I'm so glad I found you! Have you seen Cassandra or anyone else?"

"Can't... breath. You're... strangling me." Kilik couldn't believe how strong she was and after a few seconds, she finally let him go. Coughing for breath, he explained that Siegfried, Hilde and Cassandra would join them soon after they made their way out of the labyrinth that was under the house. "Anyway, where's Xianghua? Valeria, Lynette and Hualin went to alot of trouble to make me look this good and I'm confident I'll win my love back. Look! They even did my nails!" The monk proceeded to show Sophitia his manicured nails really excitedly.

"Pretty good huh?" said Valeria as she walked out of the bathroom with a giant make-up kit in hand. The two other shop keepers exited as well and they each looked really proud of their accomplishment.

Not knowing what to say about Kilik's manicured nails, Sophitia merely nodded dumbly. "Anyway... Xianghua and Zasalamel is in the dining room. Oh, I'll be with you in a moment but I really need to use the washroom. Excuse me." She pushed the group out of the way and slammed the door shut.

"Xianghua! I'm coming for you!" And Kilik dashed off to confront Zasalamel as well as winning back his love.

"Hey, be careful! You'll mess up the hair!" shouted Lynette, chasing after him while the other two shopkeepers ran behind her closely.

* * *

><p>"What! You can't hide in there with me Nightmare!" exclaimed Talim, trying to run into the girl's changing room where a bunch of females are presumably changing into their swimming gear to go swimming in the hotel's pool.<p>

"But it's the perfect hiding spot!" protested Nightmare. "Algol would never go in there!"

"That's because it's a place for women to change! And you're a man!" said an exasperated Talim, trying to pull away from Nightmare who had grabbed onto her.

"Well, if you want to say it that way... Then you're not a women! You're a girl!"

Talim shook her head. "Fine! Let me reword this then...ONLY FEMALES ARE ALLOWED TO ENTER!"

"There you guys are!" shouted a relieved looking Algol as he appeared. "I've got you now!"

Without another word, Nightmare ran into the women's changing room and he accidentally forgot that he was also holding onto Talim's hand so he dragged her behind with him. As Algol stood at the doors to the place forbidden to men, he heard alot of angry screaming...

"YOU PEEPING TOM! HOW DARE YOU LOOK AT ME!"

"EEEEKKKK! IT'S A MAN! IT'A MAN! SOMEBODY GET HIM!"

"I'LL BREAK HIS ARMS!"

"I'LL BREAK HIS FACE!"

"I'LL BREAK HIS HORN!"

"YOU PERVERT! I'LL KNEE YOU IN THE GROIN FOR LOOKING AT MY DAUGHTER!"

"I HAVE NO INTEREST IN LITTLE GIRLS! MOVE OR I'LL DEVOUR YOUR SOULS!"

"NIGHTMARE! LET GO OF MY ARM! EVERYONE! I'M SO SORRY! PLEASE FORGIVE US!"

With a sigh, he headed for the men's changing room to access the pool. "Why does things always have to be so difficult?"

* * *

><p>As Amy looked out the window of her bedroom in the hotel, she noticed Ivy climbing into one of the limousine. Taking out her super powered binoculars, she zoomed in on the car and she noticed the bumper sticker that said Soul Calibur on it. A mischievous grin crossed her face as she lowered the binoculars and she began fiddling with one of her curly pigtails. "It's time to get revenge on Algol for kidnapping me..."<p>

* * *

><p>Sitting in the car, Ivy crossed her legs and leaned back in boredom. With nothing to do but wait for Algol, she grabbed a sleeping mask and proceeded to catch some sleep. "If that man makes me wait another hour longer... he's going to get it."<p>

* * *

><p>"Dude... how long have we been hanging up here?" groaned Yun-Seong, shifting around a bit but then it just made the two tied up men begin swinging back and forth.<p>

"Will you stop moving! I'm trying to get some sleep!" snapped Raphael. "And what is that smell?"

"It's the latest Korean cologne I've been wearing," replied Yun-Seong smugly. "It's guaranteed to make me more attractive to females (Seong-Mina). What do you think?"

"Oh please, the cologne I'm wearing is ten times better than yours. Now if you'll excuse me, I want to catch some more sleep." Raphael was glad that he was blindfolded so that he didn't have to look at the younger man but he really wished that he had earplugs right now. Because...

"How in the world can you sleep upside down like that? All the blood is rushing to my head," whined Yun-Seong.

"HAVE YOU NOT NOTICE THAT I'M A VAMPIRE?"

"Hey, I just remembered! Where's my toad? Hwang! Hwang! Where are you man?" shouted Yun-Seong, struggling to get out of their bonds but this just made the two sing back and forth like a pendulum.

Raphael groaned in exasperation. "Who cares! It's just a toad! I'll give you one of Amy's pet so will you stop moving! I'm getting dizzy!"

"No! That toad is special! You don't understand!" replied Yun-Seong hotly.

The two were moving back and forth really high by now and as Raphael was about to yell at Yun-Seong again, he cracked his head against the wall and fell unconscious. When they swung back the other way, Yun-Seong cracked his head and also fainted.

"Finally! I thought those idiots would never shut up," said one of the mummy actors, crossing his arms in a annoyed expression. "When in the world is Algol going to get here so we can move on. These bandages are really making me itchy."

"Tell me about it," said about ten other mummies, watching Raphael and Yun-Seong swing back and forth above the mouth of the sphinx statue.

* * *

><p>Nervously playing with his spoons, Zasalamel shot a furtive look over at the kitchen and wished that Taki would hurry up with the food already so that he could pretend to stuff his mouth and not talk. Clearing his throat, he gave Xianghua a pained smile. "So... nice weather we're having right?"<p>

Xianghua pouted at him. "Honey, I thought you would have some romantic speech prepared for me. At least you have a gift right?"

Sweat poured down the man's forehead and he reached for a napkin. "Of-of course. I'll giv-give it to you after the meal."

His supposed wife beamed happily at his lie and clapped her hand together cheerfully. "Oh honey boo! That's so sweet of you!"

Voldo played the piano alittle faster and Zasalamel gulped. The plan was to make this ghost happy so that she would leave after the stupid anniversary was over. He had to do his part! Giving her a wide smile, he said, "You look very beautiful tonight dear."

Xianghua's face turned a bright red and she stuttered, "Oh honey! You're embarrassing me!"

Now was the time to use all of his manipulative skills to use! Zasalamel quickly added, "What is there to be embarrassed about my rose? There's no one in this world that is more lovely than you."

"SHUT UP!"

The lights went out and Xianghua cried, "What's going on?"

A random spotlight illuminated Kilik underneath it and he had this really cool pose where he had his hand on one hip and the other one ran through his hair. With his dark sunglasses and dark suit, it almost looked like Zasalamel and Kilik had been planning to go to a formal event together or something. Behind him, the three shopkeepers were also posing and Kilik quickly pointed a finger at Valeria. "Valeria! Cue my love song to Xianghua!" He flashed his girlfriend a hot smile and said, "Listen! My soul rages with love!"

Zasalamel gagged behind his hand and Xianghua just stared at the monk with a stupefied expression. Kicking the boombox, the song 'Breathing by Jason Derulo' started playing.

**I only miss you when I'm breathing**  
><strong>I only need you when my heart is beating<strong>  
><strong>You are the color that I'm bleeding<strong>  
><strong>I only miss you when I'm breathing<strong>

Pumping his chest to the music, Kilik began dancing to the music at the same time as he sung. The three shopkeepers served as his back-up dancers and Zasalamel's mouth dropped open. "Holy Calibur...I can't believe this..."

**This ain't no ordinary feeling**  
><strong>You are the only thing that I believe in<strong>  
><strong>I know you're coming back to me<strong>  
><strong>I will be waiting here for you til the end<strong>

Kilik snapped his fingers and Hualin threw him a rose. Popping it into his mouth, he did three difficult dance steps and as he spun to a stop, he threw the rose over to Xianghua who caught it with a bewildered look on her face. Even Voldo had stopped playing and he was starting to get rather worried about their situation.

**I only miss you when I'm breathing!**  
><strong>I only miss you when I'm breathing!<strong>

**Without your love, don't know how I survive**  
><strong>It's you, it's you that's keeping me alive<strong>

**I only miss you when I'm breathing!**

**Ay ay ay ay**  
><strong>Ay ay ay ay<strong>

Lynette giggled and turned the volume up just as Kilik unbuttoned his jacket and tossed it away (and conveniently hitting Zasalamel with it). Doing the shuffle, he twirled to the right and ran a hand to his chest suggestively (Valeria told him to do that).

**I wanna see pictures of you leaning**  
><strong>I needs for walls, and on the ceiling<strong>  
><strong>Gave you a kiss, but i'm dreaming<strong>  
><strong>These crazy thoughts are so deceiving<strong>  
><strong>You are the drug, I am needing<strong>  
><strong>Paradise that I'm so seeking<strong>

Sophitia had entered the dining room and this point and she almost had a nosebleed when she saw what Kilik was doing. "Hephaestus... Am I dreaming?"

**I'm still alive, hope there's a reason**  
><strong>Can't move my lips, but my heart's screaming<strong>

**I only miss you when I'm breathing!**  
><strong>I only miss you when I'm breathing!<strong>

**Without your love, don't know how I survive**  
><strong>It's you, it's you that's keeping me alive<strong>

Who knew Kilik could have gotten so good at singing and dancing so fast but no one could deny the fact that it was undeniable sexy. And this was extremely good for their T.V ratings so the technician in that computer room pressed a few buttons and more colorful spotlights appeared over their heads and things were just jamming!

**I only miss you when I'm breathing!**

**Ay ay ay ay**  
><strong>Ay ay ay ay<strong>

**Oh baby, I only miss you when I...**  
><strong>I'm screaming at your name, but you don't answer me<strong>  
><strong>I know I kissed your face, is this my fantasy?<strong>  
><strong>Sound the alarm, tell everyone that I only miss you<strong>

Kilik's fanbase received an explosion new fans as well as fan mails from his fangirls. Pounding the ground with his killer dance moves, he jumped to a stop; pumped his fist into the air and a bouquet of random pink roses fell from the ceiling (from the technicians). Not questioning his luck, he readied himself for the last part of the song.

**I only miss you when I'm breathing!**  
><strong>I only miss you when I'm breathing!<strong>

**Without your love, don't know how I survive**  
><strong>It's you, it's you that's keeping me alive<strong>

**I only miss you when I'm breathing!**

**I only miss you when I'm breathing...**

Sliding across the floor, he came to a stop at Xianghua's feet and held the roses out towards her. "Xianghua... I've missed you so much. Will you be mine my love?"

Everything was really quiet except for a random "You're putting too much oil in that dish!" from Taki's voice that echoed from the kitchen.

Looking up at Xianghua with the flowers held out, his hopes soared when she smiled at him. But then the next words that came out of her mouth ripped out his heart, crushed his soul, dashed his dreams, and flattened his hopes. "I only love Zasalamel. My honey boo. And thanks to you... YOU RUINED MY ANNIVERSARY! HE WAS FINALLY STARTING TO BE ROMANTIC BEFORE YOU INTERRUPTED US YOU DIMWIT!" With a snap of her fingers, the floorboards sprung up and launched Kilik and his flowers out of the window.

"Xianghua!" shouted Kilik as he soared far far away.

She turned to the three shopkeepers who was huddling together in fear. "And you three!" Snapping her fingers again, she used the same ghostly powers to launch them out of the window as well. Walking over to the boom box, she super kicked it to high heavens and as the music faded away, she turned back to Zasalamel with a smile. "Well, shal we continue honey?"

"Uhhh... you're really strong...my dear."

She hugged him and said, "Awww... you're so sweet."

By now, Zasalamel was really starting to be afraid of her. Patting her on the back, he gingerly wished that he could think up a good present at the end or else it'd be his butt that she's going to be kicking out the window.

* * *

><p>"Ladies, ladies... Behold my next dive. The cannonball!" roared Maxi, standing on top a diving board that was really high up. A bunch of rich girls wearing bikinis and other swimsuits cheered and whistled at him. Rock was busy relaxing in the hot tub near by and he looked over at the loud noises. He was about to close his eyes again but then he noticed Talim and Nightmare scaling the high diving board and Algol was chasing after them really closely. "In the name of the spirits... what's going on?"<p>

* * *

><p>"Just leave us alone!" sobbed Talim, climbing up the ladder as fast as she could.<p>

Nightmare was behind her and he hissed, "Faster girl! Faster!"

"Do you want me to break that horn off your helmet!" shouted Talim, who was starting to lose it after being with Nightmare for so long. No wonder Tira's crazy... "If it wasn't for me, the champion female wrestler back there in the changing room would've snapped it in half already!"

"What's going on?" asked a confused Maxi as he heard voices coming up the ladder. To his surprise, Nightmare and Talim ran over to him and the diving board was getting rather cramped. "Guys! The rules said that only one person is allowed to be on at a time!"

"I don't care about the rules!" retorted Nightmare, looking for a way to escape.

Talim also looked and when she saw how high up they were, she paled. "Oh wind..."

"Finally!" shouted Algol, coming up on the diving board. "There's... phew... no where to run now."

The three backed up from the Hero King and no surprise, they reached the end and they all began to fall.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKK!" Talim grabbed onto Maxi and closed her eyes.

To everyone's surprise, Nightmare also grabbed onto Maxi and screamed for his life. "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Being grabbed by the two like this, and falling in such an unprepared state, Maxi also screamed. "This is the stupidest thing ever!" All the people in the pool began screaming as well and they all tried to get as far as possible before the trio landed.

The three finally hit the waters with tremendous force in the fancy pool and Algol peered down below from the diving board and shook his head. "Idiots..."

* * *

><p>Status of the Soul Calibur crew, their rooms and points…<p>

Room 1-Raphael

Room 2-Zasalamel

Room 3-Amy (discovered something she shouldn't have and is kidnapped by Algol's secret agents) 20 points

Room4-Lizardman (missing and whereabouts is unknown) 10 points

Room 5-Siegfried (defeated by the minotaur because he didn't pick the sword. He picked the gun) 30 points

Room 6-Nightmare(kidnapped by Spawn... willingly) 30 points

Room 7-Hilde (defeated by the minotaur because her boyfriend chose a shotgun) 30 points

Room 8-Tira (got duped by a poster and leaped out the window. Currently chasing after a guy for revenge) 30 points

Room 9-Setsuka

Room 10-Mitsurugi (was hospitalized and finished getting his stomach pumped) 10 points

Room 11-Maxi (got pulled out of a window by Astaroth when the golem slipped on buttery popcorn) 30 points

Room12- Rock (defeated by the crazy axe man aka Astaroth and tossed out the window) 30 points

Room 13-Kilik (rejected by Xianghua and launched out a window by ghostly powers) 60 points (for boosting the ratings for the show)

Room 14-Xianghua

Room 15-Ivy (launched out of a window and out of the trial) 10 points

Room 16-Cervantes (thrown into the garden by Raphael's team and taken by zombies) 20 points

Room 17-Yoshimitsu (taken by zombies) 20 points

Room 18-Taki

Room 19-Sophitia

Room 20-Hwang

Room 21-Cassandra(defeated by the minotaur since Hilde's boyfriend chose the gun) 30 points

Room 22-Seong-Mina (either burnt or eaten by a very angry mama dragon) 30 points

Room 23-Talim (sacrificed herself to save her team and taken by zombies) 20 points

Room 24-Yun-Seong

Mystery Room-Voldo

* * *

><p>Darkwings13:Ok, I'll try to update on Sunday or Monday everyone. I'm sorry to all of you who waited so long for an update! But now that I'm on break, updates should hopefully be alittle more frequent. :)<p> 


	24. A Weird Mirror and Taped Up Windows

Taki... was a woman of few words. But when she saw what happened to Xianghua's anniversary cake, a whirlwind of words flew through her head and out her mouth. "ARE YOU SERIOUS? NOT EVEN LIZARDMAN WOULD EAT THIS THING! THE SIDE FROSTING ISN'T EVEN MADE PROPERLY! AND THE ICING TASTES NOTHING LIKE WHAT IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE! THE RECIPE BOOK SAID ONLY TWO CUPS OF MILK BUT YOU ADDED SIX CUPS AND THIS THING IS MELTING BEFORE MY EYES!"

"Oh, did you say something? Sorry, I zoned out," replied Setsuka, stirring some stuff around in a bubbling pot.

By this rate, Taki felt like throwing five of her ninja bombs in the geisha's face. But since she didn't have them, she had to contend with strangling her. This led to a series of unfortunate events where Setsuka did the same thing and while the two fought each other around the kitchen, many of the dishes and ingredients went flying around and the echoing crashes of broken dishes could be heard from the dining room and not even Voldo's piano music could cover it.

Zasalamel arched an eyebrow and said to Sophitia, "You, go to the kitchen and check out what's going on."

The Greek mother was currently trying to tape the broken glasses back on the window to block out the chilly draft. Turning away from the Kilik shaped hole in the window, she sighed. "Make Voldo do it. I'm busy."

"Did you say something dearie?" Xianghua said in a dangerously sweet voice. "You know that window you're fixing... I could end that job for you by sending you through it as well."

Sophitia broke out in a cold sweat and hurriedly rushed to the kitchen. As she neared it, she could see smoke coming out from under the door and her eyes widened. Opening it, she backed away quickly and gasped, "Oh great Zeus! The kitchen's on fire!" Taki and Setsuka were still fighting each other but when they heard Sophitia's voice, they quickly snapped out of it and began trying to douse the kitchen.

"Turn on the tap stupid!" shouted Taki, throwing baking powder on the flames.

"WHAT?" shouted Zasalamel from the dining room.

"I mean... the food is really hot!" said Sophitia hastily, beating at the fiery stove with a broom. Near by, Setsuka threw cups of water around and the kitchen was basically a total chaos.

Zasalamel was starting to debate on whether he should go to the kitchen to investigate but then Xianghua spoke up. "Honey boo, did you remember that day we went to the sea together?"

"Uhh... yes?"

She rested her chin on her hand and looked up at the chandelier dreamily. "It was one of the best days of my life."

Zasalamel was mentally cursing at where this was going. After all, he had no recollection of having a wife as scary as her. Sure he did get married a few times during his horribly long life time but he found family life to be terribly boring. Finding and discovering new spells and ancient secrets by travelling around the world was much more interesting so he never got married again. And women were more trouble than they were worth in his opinion. All that nagging... and he got annoyed when they kept dropping hints on wanting stuff like clothes. He'd much rather spend that money on books. Back on topic... he had to try and find a way to change the **topic**. Fast. "So... dear... umm... did you hear the news last night?"

"Why are you changing the subject?" growled Xianghua.

He broke out in a cold sweat and stammered, "I-I'll be ri-right back. Bathroom." And he quickly rushed out of there."

She sighed and gave Voldo a sad look. "Did I say something wrong?"

He just slowly shrugged. "Shshshsh (Maybe he just needs to go)?"

* * *

><p>"Oh Nighty! Wakey wakey! Awww... it's not working! Oh, I got it! Nighty, get ready for the kiss of life baby!"<p>

Hearing that voice, Nightmare thought he was having a nightmare where Tira was trying to perform CPR on him. But when he felt her cold lips trying to find his... he quickly snapped awake and shoved her away from him. "That was the worst nightmare ever! And everyone you kiss dies!" He shook the water off him and looked around the bright and fancy swimming area in a dazed fashion.

Siegfried stood beside him and grinned. "I was hoping that she would kiss him since everyone knows she only has the kiss of death. That would be the end of Nighty right Hilde?"

Hilde was wearing a very nice red and white swimsuit and she leaned on her boyfriend as she laughed. "Ha, I would've enjoyed seeing that if it happened."

"What are you idiots doing here anyway?" asked Nightmare grumpily.

"No duh, we also lost," replied Siegfried. "But after seeing this place, I'm starting to wish I gave up sooner."

"Siegfried," lectured Hilde. "For our honour, you can't think like that."

"Yo... what happened," asked Maxi, starting to wake up as well. "Hey, where's Talim?"

* * *

><p>"Let go of me this instant Algol! I'm going to tell my grandmother on youuuuu!" shouted Talim as she pounded on his back over and over again. She was slung over his shoulders as he exited the hotel with a bored look on his face.<p>

"Nothing personal Talim, but this can't be helped. You know that I'm very fond of you ever since you revived my son but this is for the sake of the show."

"Argh! I don't want to go back! Why me? Why can't you pick someone else? There's ton of other better-looking candidates!" shouted Talim, kicking her feet up and down.

"Yes, but no one else can fit into that kitty outfit of yours," replied Algol.

The priestess looked surprised at that. "Wait... you mean my SCIV 2p outfit? What in the world does that have to do with anything?"

"Holy Calibur! What in the world happened to my car?" Algol stopped walking and gawked at the horrible sight of his limousine.

Twisting around, Talim strained her neck to see and she couldn't help but say,"Awww... it's so cute!"

It seems that Algol's limousine had fell victim to becoming a Hello Kitty advertisement. The paint was a bright blush pink and his tires were neon pink as well. A giant Hello Kitty sticker was taped to the front of the car and on closer inspection, there was sparkles/glitter on the paint. Quickly running to the driver's door, he pounded on it. "Open up this instant!" Finally, the window rolled down and it revealed a bound and gagged driver.

"Oh my wind! Are you alright?" While Talim was busy untying the driver, Algol saw a piece of rolled up Hello Kitty paper. Snatching it, he began reading.

Dear Algol

Do you like the new look? I hope you didn't since that was the whole point of wasting my time on decorating your car like this. This is payback for kidnapping me. There's no point in trying to remove the sticker since I ordered the best sticky glue this country had to offer. Which means that you can try using a crowbar to remove it and the only thing you'll end up with is a sore arm. You can't repaint your car either. I've made sure to choose a special type of paint that will bleed through the new coat if you try. As for the tires... try changing it and see what happens if you dare.

With lots of hate,

Amy Sorel

P.S I found out about your plan (by bribing one of your people) and I've stuck a Hello Kitty sticker on the back of Talim's kitty shirt and while Ivy was sleeping, I've stamped a fake Hello Kitty tattoo on her arm. Take that Algol!

Rubbing his eyes tiredly, Algol sighed. "Raphael spoiled that girl too much..."

Talim peeked at the piece of paper and when she finished, she had a puzzled expression on her innocent face. "I wonder where Amy got all that money..."

"I'm pretty sure Raphael gave her one of his credit card or something," replied Algol. "Wait a minute... Ivy has a Hello Kitty tattoo?"

They rushed to her door and opened it up. "Ivy! Ivy wake up!"

Opening her eyes, Ivy yawned. "My... that was a nice nap. Why are you two looking so flustered?"

Talim bit her lips and pointed to Ivy's arm. "You might want to keep calm..."

Ivy arched an eyebrow but when she saw what happened, she screamed. "WHAT IN THE WORLD IS THIS!"

"Don't worry! It's fake! At least... that's what Amy said..." Talim replied worriedly.

* * *

><p>"HONEY BOO! YOU'VE BEEN IN THERE FOR A WHOLE HOUR!" shouted Xianghua, pounding on the bathroom door. "GET YOUR BUTT OUT OF THERE BEFORE I DRAG YOU OUT MYSELF!"<p>

Zasalamel was quietly reading the newspaper while leaning on the bathroom counter when she said that and he rolled his eyes. "Can't I get some time to myself? After all, I need my own personal space too you know." That was what he wanted to say but he had a feeling that if he did say that, she'd kicked him through five solid walls and out the door of the house. Closing the newspaper, he got up and reached for the doorknob. "I'm comi-What's going on?" The light suddenly turned off and the bathroom was ominously dark. He pulled on the door but it wouldn't open. Turning around, he suddenly saw a ghastly figure in the bathroom mirror.

A girl with very long hair covering her face was staring right at him and she held out a very pale hand towards him. "Come with me... to the other side...We have cookies."

"Uhhh... no thank you?"

"Too bad." Suddenly, her hand shot out from the mirror and grabbed his throat and Zasalamel struggled to get free."

"Listen you...I have enough... to deal with... So move it... Or I'll make you!" Grabbing the mirror off the wall, he was going to break it but then Xianghua kicked open the door at the same time so it hit his head and he tumbled into the mirror. "CURSE IITTTTTTTT!"

"Honey Boo!" Xianghua touched the mirror surface and she couldn't find any secret buttons on it. But she saw her hubby disappear through the stupid thing! So why? Thinking hard, Xianghua decided that the only person who was good with secrets were ninjas... and it was a good thing she had a ninja to help her. "TAKI! WHERE ARE YOU?"

* * *

><p>As Xianghua kicked down the kitchen doors, her eyes flashed dangerously. "What happened here?"<p>

"She did it!" Taki and Setsuka pointed at each other while Sophitia sighed.

Everything in the kitchen was smoking, soot covered the three women's faces and outfits and a stench of burnt fish lingered in the air. But the cake was the last straw that made Xianghua crack. It was a pile of black goop and she roared, "That's it!" With her ghostly powers, she blasted Setsuka out the kitchen window.

"Setsuka!" cried Sophitia, rushing over and looking down. But the inky darkness of the night made it too hard to see anything.

Flipping her hair, Xianghua said, "Start taping up that window as well woman." Turning to Taki, she snapped her fingers and Voldo held out the magic mirror of doom for Taki. "My honey boo disappeared through that thing. It's your job to get him back for me!"

Taki and Voldo placed the large and heavy mirror on the kitchen table and the ninja pursed her lips at it. After ten minutes, a vein was starting to show on the ninja's forehead and she was starting to get really stressed since she had no idea how on earth she was going to pull Zasalamel out of that mirror.

"Well, have you figured it out yet?" asked Xianghua impatiently.

Taki eyes looked around the grey and dirty kitchen. She finally noticed the clock that said it was 9pm. Only three more hours until that ghost had to leave this world and return to ghost heaven or where ever. IT... WAS TIME TO STALL. "Yes! I do know the way to bring back Zasalamel from the mirror of which he has disappeared into and this will be a most long and difficult ritual but through patience, we can succeed in bringing back our dear friend."

"Hshshs (Why are you talking in such a round-about way)?" asked Voldo.

"Just stall for as much time as possible," Taki hissed to him quietly.

"Ok! What's the first thing we should do?" asked Xianghua excitedly.

"We... We take this onion!" Taki grabbed a burnt onion off the basket under the table. "And we rub it against the mirror five hundred times!"

Voldo thought to himself, "We're screwed..."

* * *

><p>"Zasalamel? Are you alright?"<p>

Opening his eyes slowly, he blinked in surprise. It looked like he was in some ancient Egyptian pyramid and hieroglyphics covered the walls along with bright, burning torches that was carefully attached to the wall as well. When long blond hair brushed his face he leaped upward and screamed, "Talim! Why in the world are you here and dressed in that cat outfit? And where are we?"

"Calm down, you're giving me a headache." Ivy strolled out from behind a statue and crossed her arms tiredly. It looked like she was wearing some kind of skimpy outfit made of snake skin and she also had a snake necklace along with a real pet snake coiled around her neck.

But his eyes were drawn to the Hello Kitty tattoo on her right arm. Then Algol appeared, along with some lady holding a make-up kit and she began hiding the tattoo with foundation and other womanly cosmetics stuff.

"Oh, here's your outfit Zasalamel." Talim held out something that looked like a skirt. Seeing the look on his face, she smiled. "It's a short kilt made from linen. And... it was either this or a loincloth."

"What's going on here! I demand an answer!"

Algol sighed and explained in less than ten seconds. "You're out of the trial and you and Ivy are the right hand man and woman of the Goddess Bast. We move out in ten minutes so hurry and get dressed."

"Wait, who's Bast? And why are we doing this? How in the world am I out of the trial if I'm still inside the house? I demand a better explanation Algol," said Zasalamel angrily.

Ivy stroked her pet snake and smirked. "Talim's going to play the part of Bast. And we're going to see whether Raphael or Yun-Seong makes it out alive from this place..."

"Eh? I thought you said it wasn't dangerous Algol," said Talim worriedly.

"Don't worry. There's only a thirty percent chance they'll die. And if you think about how stubborn those two idiots are, they'll be fine," Algol said to her reassuringly. After a moment's thought, he stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Zasalamel has a point. You're still inside the house..."

Before Zasalamel could sigh in relief, Algol said, "Would you like me to warp you back to your 'wife' so that she could kick your butt out the house instead?"

Zasalamel narrowed his eyes and thought about the situation carefully. If he came back with no present for their dumb anniversary, then he was doomed and he would earn his team only 30 points. But if he played his part in whatever Algol had in mind... "Hero King! Want to hear my part of the deal?"

* * *

><p>"Are you sure this is what we're supposed to be doing?" asked Xianghua, dumping more ice over the mirror.<p>

Taki nodded knowledgeably. "Of course I'm sure. Now, where's that chocolate syrup?"

Rummaging around in the undamaged pantry, Voldo chucked out a bottle of maple syrup. "Hishs shsihs shhh (We ran out of chocolate syrup. All we have left is maple syrup made from Canada)."

"That's alright." Catching the bottle, she dumped the sugary sweetness on the mirror. "Don't worry Zasalamel. You'll soon be freeee..."

Sophitia was sneaking looks at the trio while she taped up the window. "It looks more like they're making deserts instead of trying to rescue Zasalamel."

As they continued pouring random ingredients on the mirror, Taki looked at the clock and noted that there was only one more hour to go.

"Hey! When is this going to work!" snapped Xianghua. "If you tell me that I have to chop more apples and stick them on the mirror then I'm going to be angry!"

"Sshshsh shheeh hhsss (Technically, we're all out of apples)," said Voldo.

Taki eyes darted around until an idea finally hit her. "Next... we dump the mirror into a pot!"

"Why?" asked Xianghua suspicisoly.

"Because... that's a secret ninja technique that I cannot reveal. You just have to trust me," Taki replied nervously.

"Fine! Voldo, get a giant pot of water and start it boiling now!" commanded Xianghua.

* * *

><p>"Wa-wake... up!"<p>

"No Tali- I mean Bast, you need to say it in a more commanding tone of voice."

"Uhh, I'll try Ivy. I mean, that's a wonderful suggestion my dear servant. You two! Get them to wake up!"

"OWWWWW!"

Raphael and Yun-Seong were woken up because two mummies were slapping them awake.

"Stop! Stop!" cried Talim, from her place high up on a throne. Ivy and Zasalamel stood on either side of her and the latter was now wearing a kilt and some very heavy eyeliner around his eyes. The mummies bowed down to her and next, they leaped off the stage and down into the open pit.

The two men quickly stood up and Yun-Seong gasped, "What are you guys doing here? And why are we-"

"Why is the platform we're standing on... suspended over an open pit!" shouted Raphael, going over to the edge and staring down at the dark and deep abyss below.

"Silence! How dare you talk to the Goddess Bast in that tone of voice!" shouted Ivy.

"What I like to know is why Zasalamel's wearing a skirt and make-up." asked Raphael.

"Shut up Sorel. This is traditional Egyptian clothes and the eyeliner is called kohl. And my name is not Zasalamel. Its..." He looked at the writing on his arm and said, "My name is Zasame! My partner's name is Vivi and we are the loyal followers of the Goddess Bast. Now, bow down and beg for her mercy!"

Yun-Seong and Raphael both gave each other a brief look before they burst out laughing. "Ha! You've got to be kidding! There's no way I, the great and handsome Raphael Sorel would bow down to anyone. Let alone Talim, the lowest tier character on the roster!"

"I'm sorry Talim," said Yun-Seong, crying tears of laughter. "But you're just... ahahhaha!"

Hearing that, blood rushed to Talim's head and she pursed her lips in anger. "I've had to deal with Nightmare for the past hours... and now this? I'll show them..." She snapped her fingers and mummies came out from their coffins and lined up around the edge of the pit. Next, a lion walked out from behind her throne and padded its way towards her. She gave it a quick pat on the head before pointing at the two men. "Dinner time sweet heart."

"Ahaha... it was ju-just a joke Talim," said Yun-Seong nervously, raising his hands in defeat. "Come on, you can take a bit of fun right?"

Ivy laughed. "Afraid now? I like to see how you'll get out of this one..." They two men backed towards the edge as Talim's lion leaped onto the platform and began padding its way over to them.

Raphael nearly toppled into the pit and he gauged the distance from the ledge to the other side. Jumping across that gap wouldn't be too hard but there was the mummies to deal with...The lion's roar brought him back to the situation at hand as he and Yun-Seong tried to push each other in front of the beast. "This is why I hate cats!" And Raphael tried to wrestle his cape away from the lion.

"Cat hater! Get him! Get him! Get him!" chanted the mummies. The lion then bit Raphael's cape and Yun-Seong's pants and began shaking them like crazy.

Talim whistled for her pet and said, "Drop them." As the two men took in deep breaths to get over their shock, Talim said, "It's time for my pet's cat nap. But anyway, you two will...ummm..." She leaned over and whispered to Zasalamel, "What were they supposed to do again?"

"I'll tell them." Ivy put one hand on her hip and said, "You two will be fighting to the death to leave this place."

"WHAT?" cried Yun-Seong.

"Sure," said Raphael. Before they knew it, he shoved Yun-Seong over the ledge. "Ok, when can I leave?"

* * *

><p>Xianghua stared into the pot of boiling water with a very hopeful expression on her face. "Ok, the waters ready. Drop it in Voldo!"<p>

With a sigh, Voldo dumped the mirror that was covered in food into the water. As it splashed into the humongous pot, it sat there and simmered.

"So... when is my honey boo going to be back?" asked Xianghua.

Taki checked the time and saw that there was only fifteen minutes to go before it was midnight. "Well, I say 15 minutes should be good."

The three then grabbed some burnt chairs and proceeded to sit down and wait. But then Xianghua's chair crumbled into dust because it suffered a horrible amount of damage from the fire. "My anniversary is a total disaster!" she cried. Her tears made her mascara run like a river and Voldo gave her a few comforting pats on the back. "Why did I ever do to deserve this? All I wanted was to be with my honey boo and- and... wahh!"

"Tell that to Setsuka and Kilik," muttered Sophitia, still taping up the blasted windows.

After a few more minutes the clock chimed 12 and Taki celebrated the moment inside her head. She turned over and waited for Xianghua to return to normal as the chimes cleared away. "Xianghua? Are you back?"

Xianghua turned and looked at Taki with narrow eyes. "I told you that I would leave your friend's body after my anniversary is over."

"But it is over!" Taki exclaimed as she pointed to the clock.

"Well... I'm not leaving until I see that my honey boo is safe and sound," replied Xianghua, turning back to the boiling pot.

At this rate, Taki wanted to bite her nails off in frustration. This was bad... Really really bad...Seriously.

A hissing sound from the pot caused the three to look and the next thing they knew, the mirror shattered into pieces because of the intense heat.

Crap... Make that triple bad. Taki looked over at the growling Xianghua and smiled nervously. "Well... that's a bit unfortunate."

"AUGH!"

Sophitia sighed and ducked as Taki and Voldo flew out the window she had just finished taping. "Great... I have to tape this all over again?"

Since there was nothing else to do besides scream in frustration, the ghost left Xianghua's body and Sophitia watched as the supernatural being departed. Walking over to Xianghua's body, she nudged her awake.

"Hmmm...? What's going on?" asked Xianghua.

"To make things short... you scared half of your teammates to death, you threw Kilik out a window when he performed a love song for you, you also threw out three shopkeepers, as well as Setsuka, Taki and Voldo. That's basically the gist of it," said Sophitia as she summarized the story. "Oh yea, and you also called Zasalamel honey boo like two hundred times."

* * *

><p>"I'm not going down that easily!" Yun-Seong had grabbed onto the ledge with both hands and with a swift pull, he hauled himself up and punched Raphael in the face. "Take that!"<p>

"How dare you!" Raphael and Yun-Seong quickly began fighting and beating each other up.

"Stop! Stop!" screamed Talim.

Ivy shook her head and said, "Whoever doesn't stop moving will be dropped into the pit!"

Naturally, the two men stopped in mid punches and kicks and with great reluctance, they let each other go. Talim sighed in relief but she knew that things would only get worse before they got better. "Do they really have to fight to the death?"

Zasalamel chuckled. " Kind of. But they'll be fighting with these weapons... Men! Throw them their weapons."

Two objects flew towards Raphael and Yun-Seong and when the men caught them, there was a moment of silence before Yun-Seong exclaimed, "I have to fight this guy with my Child's sword! (His joke weapon from SC3)"

Raphael looked at the weapon in his hand and stared at it with disbelief. "I have to fight that kid with a cane! (His joke weapon from SC3)"

Talim thought to herself that it was rather ironic that those two would have to fight each other and with those weapons... wow... Algol must have put alot of thought into this fight.

Ivy and Zasalamel couldn't help but laugh. "Oh look, it's the old man against the kid. Your weapons matches you perfectly."

"Are you calling me a kid!" shouted Yun-Seong.

"Be quiet... kid," said Ivy mockingly.

"For the last time, I'm not old!" And Raphael brandished his cane at them.

"Whatever Sorel. Now, it's time to commence the battle!" Zasalamel clapped his hands and a giant hourglass fell down from the ceiling and landed right next to him. Sand began pouring down inside it and Zasalamel said, "If both of you are unable to defeat each other before time runs out... both of you will die! Right my goddess?"

"Uhh, right you are! They...will fall into the pit of doom!" said Talim, unconvincingly. "And there's... kittens of doom! Waiting to eat you down there!"

Raphael and Yun-Seong both gave her a weird look. "Yea... right...Goddess of the Cats..."

Ivy quickly remedied the situation. "No, there's going to be venomous snakes down there." She pat her pet snake on the head and it began sliding towards the pit and out of sight down there.

With a smirk, Raphael said, "If Nightmare couldn't kill me in SC2, do you really think one snake will?"

She snapped her fingers and the next thing they knew, a million snakes fell from the ceiling and onto the platform. With a shriek, Raphael and Yun-Seong quickly began kicking the reptiles into the pit.

"Now let the battle... commence!" shouted Zasalamel loudly.

* * *

><p>Status of the Soul Calibur crew, their rooms and points…<p>

Room 1-Raphael

Room 2-Zasalamel (Used his manipulative skills to get Algol to give him extra points if he played his part in Algol's plans) 50 points

Room 3-Amy (discovered something she shouldn't have and is kidnapped by Algol's secret agents) 20 points

Room4-Lizardman (missing and whereabouts is unknown) 10 points

Room 5-Siegfried (defeated by the minotaur because he didn't pick the sword. He picked the gun) 30 points

Room 6-Nightmare(kidnapped by Spawn... willingly) 30 points

Room 7-Hilde (defeated by the minotaur because her boyfriend chose a shotgun) 30 points

Room 8-Tira (got duped by a poster and leaped out the window. Currently chasing after a guy for revenge) 30 points

Room 9-Setsuka (due to bad luck, Xianghua threw her out a window to vent out her frustration) 30 points

Room 10-Mitsurugi (was hospitalized and finished getting his stomach pumped) 10 points

Room 11-Maxi (got pulled out of a window by Astaroth when the golem slipped on buttery popcorn) 30 points

Room12- Rock (defeated by the crazy axe man aka Astaroth and tossed out the window) 30 points

Room 13-Kilik (rejected by Xianghua and launched out a window by ghostly powers) 60 points (for boosting the ratings for the show)

Room 14-Xianghua

Room 15-Ivy (launched out of a window and out of the trial) 10 points

Room 16-Cervantes (thrown into the garden by Raphael's team and taken by zombies) 20 points

Room 17-Yoshimitsu (taken by zombies) 20 points

Room 18-Taki (angered the ghost by failing to save Zasalamel and she was sent flying through the taped up window) 40 points

Room 19-Sophitia

Room 20-Hwang

Room 21-Cassandra(defeated by the minotaur since Hilde's boyfriend chose the gun) 30 points

Room 22-Seong-Mina (either burnt or eaten by a very angry mama dragon) 30 points

Room 23-Talim (sacrificed herself to save her team and taken by zombies) 20 points

Room 24-Yun-Seong

Mystery Room-Voldo (chucked out the window because the ghost possessing Xianghua went into-crazy- mode) 40 points

* * *

><p>Darkwings13: This is kind of late but to all of you, I wish you all a Happy New Year. I shall take my leave now my dear readers. Till next time.<p> 


	25. Seniors Vs Juniors

"There... there... it's alright. I'm sure Kilik still loves you." Sophitia was trying to comfort a tearful Xianghua and she reached over for another tissue to give her. The two women were currently in Xianghua's room and after two hours of repeating "Everything will work out and I'm sure you two will get married and have lots of kids" speech, Sophitia was starting to get really tired.

Wiping away her tears, Xianghua shook her head and dived under her blankets. "I can't believe I chucked my one true love out of the window! He'll never forgive me! It's over! There's no more hope for me Sophitia! I'm doomed to be eternally lonely and become a cat lady with 99 cats as my constant companions!"

Sophitia sighed and leaned back against the headboards. Glancing over at Xianghua's alarm clock, she said, "I'm sure things will get better once you get a good night sleep..."

"How can you expect me to sleep!" Xianghua said shrilly. "My whole future is over and you expect me stop thinking about it? You've got to be kidding!"

"Isn't that your line?" asked Sophitia tiredly, referring to the million times in the game where Xianghua would keep shouting, 'Just kidding!' and then she'd stab your foot.

Xianghua merely began crying again and she hid her head under her fluffy pillows. "I'm going to be a cat lady... Kilik hates me... I'm going to be a cat lady! Argh!"

* * *

><p>"I love cats..." said Talim, patting her pet lion on the head. The big feline purred and nuzzled her and Zasalamel arched an eyebrow at her nonchalant attitude. Raphael and Yun-Seong were having an epic battle to the death on the stage that was hovering over a pit of a million snakes and here she was, acting like they were out on a picnic.<p>

"Want a sandwich?"

Zasalamel turned as Ivy offered him a tuna sandwich and he said, "Where did you get that?"

Ivy pointed to the mummy that was holding a tray of food and then she said, "It's nice that we're hanging out with the 'Goddess Bast'. Don't you agree?"

Two of the mummies were fanning Talim with giant decorative fans like the obedient servants they were and she was happily sipping some apple juice and she leaned back on her throne contently. "Ahh..."

Clearing his throat, Zasalamel said to her, "You know, I'm rather surprised that you're enjoying yourself. I thought you would be worried to death about Raphael and Yun-Seong by now."

Talim giggled and put her apple juice back on the tray. "I was at first. But now, seeing that they're fighting with those joke weapons, I really doubt they'll get more than a few bruises." The two turned to look at the battle as Yun-Seong shouted something that was probably going to make Raphael mad.

"Come and get me if you can old man!" taunted Yun-Seong, readying his crane stance at Raphael.

"I'll give you a beating when I do kid!" Raphael shouted back as he pointed his cane at the younger male. With one swoop, he launched a vertical strike at Yun-Seong and... that was obviously a bad move because whenever Yun-Seong was in his crane stance, all vertical attacks are rendered useless as the agile Korean dodged it and kicked Raphael in the stomach.

"Ha! Is that it?"

"Shut your trap dog!" Raphael brought his cane down the Korean's head but once again, Yun-Seong dodged the attack and kicked Raphael in the stomach once more. "Ooof!"

Laughing, Yun-Seong stomped on Raphael's foot and followed up with more kicks that nearly launched Raphael into the pit. "What's wrong old man? Does your back hurt?"

"You spoiled brat! It's about time I teach you to respect your elder! Block your left side!" As Yun-Seong blocked from the left, Raphael whacked him on the right. "Block high!" Yun-Seong fell for it again as Raphael hit his knees and he dropped to one knee with a pained howl. "Ha! That's right! Bow down to me kid!"

"You cheating cheapskate!"

"It's your fault for being stupid and falling for it."

"Fight! Fight! Fight!" chanted the mummies excitedly. They waved and clapped as they stood around the pit and with every passing second, the stage was lowered down into the pit of snakes. Things were really starting to look desperate but the two hotheads were two busy trading insults instead of blows.

"What's with that outfit? Ha, poor people like you should know your place!" Raphael flourished his cape and gleaming bat accessories.

"At least I got my own original style. You just copied Alucard's outfit from Castlevania!" Yun-Seong swiftly ducked as Raphael swiped at him with the cane and he bonked the vampire on the head with his child's sword. "Ha! You're even slower than I thought you old geezer."

"NO ONE! CALLS ME AN OLD GEEZER AND LIVES TO TELL THE TALE!" Raphael jumped on Yun-Seong's back and proceeded to strangle the Korean. Both of their joke weapons dropped to the ground. Rolling away, the weapons fell off the ledge and into the pit. What people don't know is that, Yun-Seong's main weapon was actually his kicks. Hence, his nickname was actually 'Patriot of the Flashing Leg'. Too bad he didn't have enough oxygen to use his legs though.

Talim bit her lips worriedly as her friend began to turn blue and she tugged on Ivy's arm. "Ivy... you don't think Raphael will actually kill Yun-Seong right? He's... starting to turn blue..."

Ivy glanced at Raphael's red face and she guessed that the French guy was probably exploding with rage inside. "Ummm..."

"Get... off... me!" Yun-Seong gasped as he stumbled around with the older guy on his back. "You... need... to lose some weight!"

"Now you're calling me fat! Today is the day you die you dog!"

"In... your dreams!" Yun-Seong fell backward and crushed Raphael with his weight. Rolling away, he began bouncing on the balls of his heels and his hands were curled into fists. "Alright! Let's get this fight over with!"

Raphael jumped back up and his bared his teeth in anger. "Never, have I met someone as annoying as you. I'm going to make you Amy's new pet!"

Yun-Seong was about to reply when he noticed the light sparkling off Raphael's teeth... Holy Calibur! He needed a tooth from the vampire to cure Hwang! Hold on, where was Hwang? Yun-Seong looked around the room quickly and his eyes widened when he noticed the toad sitting on the sphinx statue behind Talim's throne. "Oh... how in the world am I going to fetch him now?"

"Where are you looking?"

Yun-Seong ducked one of Raphael's blow and they began the rough and painful fist fight.

Talim, Ivy, and Zasalamel winced as the two traded blows back and forth. "That... looks painful," Talim whispered as Yun-Seong socked Raphael in the eye.

"That's going to sting..." murmured Ivy as Raphael bit Yun-Seong's hand.

Zasalamel rubbed his temples and shook his head. "I'm surprised that this hasn't turn into a cat fight yet." The lion purred and prodded Zasalamel to look again. Glancing up, the two men were engaged in a vicious cat fight that would put all the past cat fights (fought by women with actual nails)in history to shame. "At this rate, nothing really surprises me anymore."

* * *

><p>"Sophitia! Come back! Are you going to abandon me as well?" sobbed Xianghua as she chased after Sophitia.<p>

The Greek mother had finally lost her patience with Xianghua and she had decided that the best way to preserve her sanity was to escape from this place. Running through the dark and creepy hallway, she collided with three people and the four tumbled down the stairs.

Xianghua peered down from the railings and gasped, "Are you guys alright?"

"I... I think I broke my leg..." Sophitia mumbled from under three bodies that was piled over her.

Running over, Xianghua pushed the three mysterious people off her friend. Helping Sophitia stand up, the two peered down at the three people and both thought, "I have never seen... hags like these before."

"Meow?"

The two looked at the purple cat padding around their feet and they both jumped in fear when the three witches shouted, "Morons! Where were you two running off to!"

Due to Xianghua's current low self esteem, she began crying. In one big breath, she said, "I flung my one true love out the window and I cheated on him with Zasalamel but it really wasn't my fault because a ghost possessed my body and then I turn into this really scary chick that brought fear to everyone's heart whenever they saw me except for Tira since she's also really scary as well but the point is that I was sobbing to Sophitia about my sad and tragic love story with Kilik and the fact that he has never even kissed me yet when suddenly she ran away from me and then we bump into you guys and I must say I have never seen someone as ugly as you people before."

Luckily for her, the witches couldn't really understand that giant sentence she was spewing out of her mouth so they merely shrugged. "Girlie, you need to speak alittle more clearly next time. But I did catch something about true love and a window. Did your boyfriend buy you a window?" asked the eldest witch.

Xianghua sobbed even harder and shook her head. "HE GOT THROWN OUT A WINDOW!"

"Uhh... well, that's pretty tragic," replied the youngest witch, petting her purple pet cat. "You know, I feel kinda sorry for you. Hey, is there something we can do to help you out?"

"Really?" Xianghua's eyes sparkled with gratitude and Sophitia perked up at this interesting offer.

"Here you go," the middle witch handed over a bottle of sparkling blue potion. "Drink this and your man will be with you. But be warn, you should be careful about what you wish for."

"What about me?" asked Sophitia, clasping her hands together and trying to look innocent.

With a sigh, the eldest witch tossed her a bottle of blue potion as well. "Drink this and make a wish. But like my sister said, you should be careful about what you wish for ladies. Now if you'll excuse us, we need to look for a certain Korean..."

The two ladies watched the hags stalk off with their purple cats and then they turned their attention back to their potions. "On the count of three?" asked Sophitia.

"Ok," chirped Xianghua. Toasting each other, they popped open the cork and quickly drank the stuff. After a bit, nothing happened and Xianghua quirked an eyebrow at the bottle in her hand. "Umm... wasn't it supposed to grant my wish?"

Sophitia sighed and chucked her bottle away. "Maybe they were just toying with us. Witches... you can't trust them. Let's go and have a late night snack instead." When tears rained down Xianghua's cheeks, Sophitia murmured, "You can have the ice cream. All five cartons of it..."

* * *

><p>"Talim..." Zasalamel said cautiously. "You might want to keep calm when I tell you this..."<p>

"Hmmm?" Tilting her head, she looked rather puzzled at the expression on his face. "What did you want to tell me?"

"MY GODDESS! THERE'S A HUGE AND UGLY TOAD ON YOUR SHOULDERS!" shouted one of the mummies who finally noticed.

Zaslamel face-palmed and shook his head. "Idiot."

Slowly, Talim turned her head and when Toad Hwang croaked, she shrieked and leaped off her throne. "Get it off! Get it off!" Swatting at it, the toad jumped off her and landed on Ivy's head instead.

"Get off me you filthy thing!" Ivy hollered loudly. Shaking her head, the toad flew into the air and Talim's lion pounced through the air for its croaking snack.

Seeing this, Yun-Seong intervened by shooting one of his leg straight out and he super kicked the lion with all of his strength. "Oh yea! No one eats my buddy without my permission!"

"Ough! Get this nasty thing off my eyes!" shouted Raphael as Toad Hwang latched himself onto the vampire's face. Stumbling backward, Raphael nearly fell into the pit but then the lion grabbed onto his cape with its sharp claws and fought to get at the toad.

Leaping into the brawling mess, Yun-Seong was trying to rescue Hwang while avoid being eaten by the lion but Raphael was making the situation rather difficult. "You and your stupid frog have irritated me long enough!" He grabbed onto Yun's hair and he also grabbed onto the lion's mane. Flipping himself over them, he smirked and said, "Good-bye pests!" Ramming his shoulder into the lion, it collided into Yun-Seong and the two dropped into the dark pit.

"My cat!" cried Talim, leaping onto the hovering stage and peering down into the pit. "Yun-Seong! Are you and your frog alright? Answer me!"

Ivy and Zasalamel joined her and they glanced down at it. "... Yep, it looks like Raphael won then."

Raphael smoothed back his hair stylishly and smirked. "As if anyone can doubt my abilities."

The roar of an angry lion shook the place and Talim laughed happily. "My cat!"

"You're... going... down..." hissed Yun-Seong as he and the cat climbed up from the other side of the pit. On top of the Korean's head, Toad Hwang croaked angrily.

"What! How did you get back up?" cried a stunned Raphael.

Yun-Seong pointed at Talim's lion sharp claws. "This cat has some mad climbing skills. And believe me, it's going to show you that those nails aren't just for climbing."

His red eyes widened as the two stalked towards him. Turning to Talim and Ivy, he hissed, "You're on my team! Do something!"

Ivy coughed, "Sorry, but that would be going against the rules..." Putting a hand over Talim's eyes, she turned the younger kid around. "Alright, this violence won't be good for you Talim. Just pretend that you can't hear Raphael's dying screams a few seconds later."

"Errr..." Talim winced as she heard Yun-Seong and the lion attack Raphael.

"Eeeeeyaaaaoooowwwww!"

"I can't really block out the sounds of his dying scream Ivy," said Talim worriedly.

"Yes! I got the tooth!"

Zasalamel arched an eyebrow at that. But then he shrugged and said, "At least Raphael has dental insurance." That's one of the few good things Project and Namco had given them. Other than that, they usually worked twelve hours a day, and six days a week. He looked up as Yun-Seong did a victory cheer as Raphael fell into the pit. If only Raphael had managed to team up with that lion, then he might have won... Oh well, it was good for his team since Yun-Seong won so he wasn't really complaining.

Talim glanced down as her lion padded over to her. "Oh? What do you have in your mouth?" She shuddered when her lion dropped one of Raphael's bat accessory (covered in the cat saliva) into her hand. "Ewww... I mean... good job my pet."

"So, what now?" asked Yun-Seong.

"You get to go free brave warrior," answered Talim cheerfully. "Good luck for the rest of the trials you'll be facing upstairs Yun-Seong. Zasalamel, let's show this young fellow the way out."

"As you command my goddess," replied Zasalamel nonchalantly. Snapping his fingers, one of the hidden walls popped open to reveal a staircase. "Just climb those stairs and you'll arrive on the second floor of the house."

"Ok, thanks guys." Jogging away, he said to Toad Hwang, "You'll be human again soon Hwang!"

"Ribbit."

As he disappeared, Talim peered down the pit and said thoughtfully, "I wonder if Raphael survived the fall."

"That guy is harder to kill than a bunch of croakroaches," replied Zasalamel, strolling over and glancing down. "But I think there's something about him and holes. It's like it's written in the stars that he's bound to fall into a hole whenever he walks by one."

"EAUGH! GET THESE SNAKES OFF ME!" Raphael's cries echoed up at the three and the mummies around them giggled.

After awhile, Ivy walked away and said, "Don't worry, there's a exit somewhere down there. He'll just have to look for it."

"What if your snakes jammed the exit? Or what if he can't finds it?" thought Zasalamel.

* * *

><p>A few hours later... at the living room on the second floor...<p>

"I feel sick," groaned Xianghua, clutching at her stomach.

Sophitia rolled off the couch and dropped to the floor and said, "I would think it was the five cartons of chocolate ice cream you've chugged down but my stomach is killing me as well."

Xianghua sobbed, "My life is a total disaster! Everything always ends up in a disaster!"

"Ugh... it's ok, I'm sure our stomaches will... owww, go away... after awhile," panted Sophitia, trying to get up and go look for some Advil. "Do you think it was that potion we drank?"

"I thought that thing was supposed to grant us a wish! Not a stomachache!" shouted Xianghua. "Argh! I'm so sick of this! I wish I was with Kilik right now!"

POOF

Blinking at the sparkly lights that suddenly illuminated the room, Sophitia coughed and waved away the pink smoke as she looked for Xianghua. "Xianghua? Hey, where are you?" Looking around frantically, Xianghua was nowhere to be seen...

* * *

><p>POOF<p>

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh!" shouted Kilik as Xianghua dropped into his lap. Everyone at the fancy hotel restaurant stared at the strange sight and Kilik spluttered, "Xi-Xianghua? What are you doing here?"

"Yeah! How in the world did you fall from the ceiling like that?" asked a bewildered Maxi who was sitting beside Kilik. At their table, the rest of the Soul Calibur crew looked at the blushing maiden and hurled questions at her. Except for Mitsurugi, he didn't really care and he continued eating his deluxe unagi sushi rolls.

"So, are thou going to tell us this fantastical secret of your or not?" questioned Yoshimitsu. "Namu namu?"

Blushing some more, Xianghua said, "Well... I just wished to be with Kilik and here I am..."

"You fool!" Everyone looked as Zasalamel burst into the restaurant.

Raphael, Ivy and Talim came in after him and they looked around in puzzlement as people began shrieking and hollering. The reason for this was because of Raphael...Some snakes wiggled out from under his cape and they dropped to the ground with a hiss. "Oh be quiet," snapped Raphael, brushing the reptiles away. "They're not poisonous."

Everyone continued to scream as a few snakes slithered around the floor and people were either jumping out of the windows to escape, or standing on their tables and hugging their loved ones. Including the Soul Calibur crew. They were all standing on their table, squishing their food underneath their feet, and Cervantes had taken out his pistol sword so that he can shoot the snakes. "Take this!" When he ran out of bullets, he went for the punch sitting on the table and threw the drink at a pile of snakes coming towards them. "Drown in darkness!" But he misjudged his aim and the sugary liquid rained down on another innocent victim.

"What's happen-" Talim closed her eyes as juiced soaked her to the skin and it dripped down her clothes. Taking off the blonde wig that was dripping with apple juice, she pouted. "Wind!" The table upturned and everyone fell to the floor in a heap. Stepping over to them, Talim had her hands on her hips and said, "Don't hurt the poor things! They're going extinct!""

"You've got that right," said Ivy, petting one of the snakes.

"Xianghua!" Everyone turned as Zasalamel grabbed the Chinese woman. "Why did you waste such a wish! You're now out of the trial and because of that, Yun-Seong is the only one in the mansion left!"

"Wait a minute," objected Seong-Mina, flinging away some strands of spaghetti that had landed on her. "Hwang is still in there."

Zasalamel stared at her for a minute before saying, "He's a toad..."

Giving Zasalamel the 'I don't get what the point is' look, Seong-Mina raised up her hands in confusion. "And how is that a bad thing? Besides the fact that he isn't human, he'll still earn points for the team if he's in there."

Zasalamel just shook his head and raised his hands in defeat. "Whatever, my team has more points than Raphael anyway. This trial will be ours."

"Not if Sophitia..." Raphael trailed off and said, "Who's the mathematician on my team?"

Amy whipped out a calculator from nowhere, and rolled her eyes. "What's the numbers again?

* * *

><p>Status of the Soul Calibur crew, their rooms and points…<p>

Room 1-Raphael (lost the fight with Yun-Seong, lost his tooth, and lost his footing and dropped into the pit) 40 points

Room 2-Zasalamel (Used his manipulative skills to get Algol to give him extra points if he played his part in Algol's plans) 50 points + 20 points (for taking part in Algol's plan)

Room 3-Amy (discovered something she shouldn't have and is kidnapped by Algol's secret agents) 20 points

Room4-Lizardman (missing and whereabouts is unknown) 10 points

Room 5-Siegfried (defeated by the minotaur because he didn't pick the sword. He picked the gun) 30 points

Room 6-Nightmare(kidnapped by Spawn... willingly) 30 points

Room 7-Hilde (defeated by the minotaur because her boyfriend chose a shotgun) 30 points

Room 8-Tira (got duped by a poster and leaped out the window. Currently chasing after a guy for revenge) 30 points

Room 9-Setsuka (due to bad luck, Xianghua threw her out a window to vent out her frustration) 30 points

Room 10-Mitsurugi (was hospitalized and finished getting his stomach pumped) 10 points

Room 11-Maxi (got pulled out of a window by Astaroth when the golem slipped on buttery popcorn) 30 points

Room12- Rock (defeated by the crazy axe man aka Astaroth and tossed out the window) 30 points

Room 13-Kilik (rejected by Xianghua and launched out a window by ghostly powers) 60 points (for boosting the ratings for the show)

Room 14-Xianghua (wished herself out of the trial to be with her one true love) 40 points

Room 15-Ivy (launched out of a window and out of the trial) 10 points + 20 points (for taking part in Algol's plan)

Room 16-Cervantes (thrown into the garden by Raphael's team and taken by zombies) 20 points

Room 17-Yoshimitsu (taken by zombies) 20 points

Room 18-Taki (angered the ghost by failing to save Zasalamel and she was sent flying through the taped up window) 40 points

Room 19-Sophitia

Room 20-Hwang

Room 21-Cassandra(defeated by the minotaur since Hilde's boyfriend chose the gun) 30 points

Room 22-Seong-Mina (either burnt or eaten by a very angry mama dragon) 30 points

Room 23-Talim (sacrificed herself to save her team and taken by zombies) 20 points + 20 points (for taking part in Algol's plan)

Room 24-Yun-Seong

Mystery Room-Voldo (chucked out the window because the ghost possessing Xianghua went into-crazy- mode) 40 points

* * *

><p>Punching in the numbers, Amy bit her lips and said, "Sophitia will have to defeat Hwang and Yun-Seong today and then she'll have to stay inside that house for three days by herself for us to win father."<p>

"Ha, we'll win this one guys," laughed Nightmare as everyone on Zasalamel's team gave each other a pat on the back.

Raphael kicked a roasted turkey away in frustration and paced back and forth angrily. Suddenly, an evil smile spread across his face. The smile was scary enough to make a baby from another table cry(add in the fact that Yun-Seong knocked out one of his tooth and you have a very... not so pretty smile) and Raphael said, "You're forgetting that... Sophitia still has a wish left."

All the blood drained out from Zasalamel's face and he stared at the Frenchman before kicking away a roasted chicken and began pacing back and forth. If Yun-Seong and Hwang can somehow get the Greek woman out of the house before she can make a wish... that was his team's only hope now...Dang it!

* * *

><p>Sipping their tea at the tea room, a single white candle illuminated the dark room and the witches looked up in surprise as Yun-Seong busted down the door and shouted, "I finally found you guys!"<p>

"Woah, what's gotten into you kid?" The eldest witched leaned back in her chair and with a wave of her wand, she fixed the door. "So, have you gotten our ingredients yet?"

"Yes!" Yun-Seong showed them the scrap of fabric from Setsuka's kimono, a few strands of Maxi's hair and lastly, Raphael's tooth. Brushing away some vines from a haning plant, Yun-Seong said, "Now you can turn my friend back right?"

"Ribbit," added Toad Hwang from the top of Yun-Seong's head.

"Sure," answered the youngest witch.

Just then, the door got busted down and Sophitia stormed in. "Alright! Tell me what you guys have done to Xianghua! I know you witches had something to do with it and do you have something that'll cure my stomachache?"

"Don't you people knock?" the middle witch stopped staring at the moon and she fixed the door with a wave of her wand. "For your stomachache, just go and find some Advil."

"I can't find any!" groaned Sophitia, massaging her stomach. Oh great Zeus, this was almost as bad as the pain of going into labour. "Don't you have anything else?"

"Try some tea." And the middle witch gave Sophitia some hot tea. Turning back to Yun-Seong, she said, "Since you've brought us the ingredients for our beauty potion, we will now show you the way to turn your friend back to normal."

"Great!" Yun-Seong said happily.

Twirling a lock of greasy hair, the eldest witch cackled, "You just needed a woman to kiss him. Haven't you ever read the story 'The Frog Prince'?"

"I just needed someone to kiss Hwang to turn him back to normal?" Yun-Seong glanced around the room and then he said, "Who's still left in this house?"

Giving Yun-Seong a magic mirror, the middle witch said, "It's just you, the toad, and the Greek woman who's having a stomachache. Anyway, we're going to leave and make our potion now. Ta ta." With that, the three witches disappeared in a flash of pink smoke.

Glancing over at Sophitia who was gulping down the tea, Yun-Seong looked at her and the toad for awhile. Finally, he cleared his throat and scratched his head nervously. "Umm... Sophitia, would you be willing to kiss my toad?"

"Er, no." Sophitia put down her cup of tea and said, "I would love to help but I'm a married woman and second, your on the enemy's team. Why on earth would I help you?" She winced as her stomach hurted again. "Oh Hephauestues, do something about this pain...Augh..."

"What if I trade the kiss for some Advils?" bargained Yun-Seong, taking out some of the pills. "I found these while looking around the witches. Oh no you don't," he withdrew his hands as Sophitia tried to snatch some. "The kiss remember?"

"Does an air kiss work?" grumbled Sophitia.

Yun-Seong thought about it for a moment and said, "Uhh... let's give it a try?"

"Fine. Hand over that frog."

Giving her the toad, Yun-Seong watched as Sophitia air kissed Hwang and a few seconds later...

POOF

Opening the window to let out the pink smoke enveloping Hwang and Sophitia, Yun-Seong shouted, "Are you guys okay?"

"Get off of me!" shouted Sophitia, pushing the heavy Korean man off her.

As Hwang stood up, he rejoiced in regaining his human body. "Yes! I'm normal again!"

"Alright! High five man!" Yun-Seong and Hwang gave each other a high five and he turned back to Sophitia as she got up. "Here's your advils."

Gulping down the pills along with some tea, Sophitia waited for awhile. When pain hit her once more, she gasped, "Give me the bottle now! I want to see if these... uhhh... are the right pills." When Yun-Seong gave her the bottle, she read the contents quickly and after she finished... she was furious. "I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS! THESE THINGS EXPIRED FIFTY YEARS AGO!"

Rage sparked in her eyes and the two Koreans stepped back nervously. "Woah, there Sophitia... I'm.. I'm sure it's nothing serious," laughed Yun-Seong hesitantly.

Her eyes narrowed and she shouted, "I wish you guys can experience the same pain I'm going through and then we'll see who's laughing!"

The wish came true as terrible body wracking pain hit them and the two Koreans fell to the floor. "Augh... is this... how uhhh! Womens feel when they're in labour," gasped Yun-Seong.

Hwang nodded and he said, "You... got to admire... how good... they can take this sort of thing."

After making that wish, Sophitia no longer felt any pain and she realized that the potion she drunk did have magical powers. And since she was the only one left in the house... Kneeling down, she said kindly, "Do you want me to call the ambulance?"

"Yes please..." moaned Yun-Seong and Hwang.

* * *

><p>Watching the ambulance drive away the two men from her window, Sophitia yawned tiredly. By her calculations, all she had to do was last for three days in the house and their team should win. But could she really brave all these terrible things by herself?...<p>

"You can do it sister!"

Cassandra? Sophitia opened the window and when she saw her sister and her teamates floating past the window in a hot air balloon, her mouth dropped opened. "You did all of this... for me?"

"Mommy!" cheered Patroklos and Pyrrha. The two small kids clapped their hands for her and her husband shouted, "I love you darling! You've made me and the kids so proud of you!"

"Rothion... Pyrrha.. Patroklos...Cassandra" Her eyes shimmered with tears and she waved to them. "I promise I'll do my best for our family!"

Maxi, Siegfried, Hilde and Kilik gave her the thumbs up and they wished her luck. Joining in, Talim threw a paperplane over to the Greek mother and when Sophitia caught it, she saw that everyone on her team had signed their names on it along with wishing her the best of luck.

"You can't lose Sophitia!" ordered Raphael. "I will never be able to live it down to Zasalamel if we lost now."

"Good luck Sophitia!" shouted everyone else as their hot air balloon flew away.

With everyone cheering for her, Sophitia was determined to win this at all cost. A genius idea hit her and as she headed to bed, she grabbed some heavy duty sleeping pills. These pills were 100% safe and were supposed to help you look more beautiful when you wake up. Therefore, every kind of monster(including the monster under her bed) that went after Sophitia moaned in despair as she slept like Sleeping Beauty and snored at their attempts to frighten her.

* * *

><p>In a very fancy office of a skyscraper...<p>

"Greetings mortals," said Algol, turning around in his chair. "I, the mighty Algol have been chosen as Darkwings spokesperson for this story. She sends you all her deepest appreciation for reading this and to make sure that this T.V show of mine lives on, bow down to me and donate your money/reviews to Soul Clash!"

Arcturus sat on the chair in front of his father and quirked an eyebrow. "I don't think Darkwings13 told you to say something like that... And we've already made two billion dollars so far. There's 19 really rich people who have generously paid careful attention to this story." And he handed his father the list.

Adjusting his tie, Algol began reading the list. "A big thank you to ThalieXVII, Cristal Knight, Uppgreydd, xXLilMissCellist-4Xx, Iyana Shinzo1216, Elizander, DarK2011Kuro, CRYSTALTEAR020, diegofu, Raphael949..." After taking a sip of sparkling mineral water, Algol resumed reading the long list. "AngelEyes87, Mixed Addict, Crimson Calkaka, 1wngdngl, RenegadeZabuzaMomochi, SunakoSquaddie2795, Neyla-Chan, 2 Lucky, and EvulPanda for 'favoriting' this and giving Darkwings13 your money/attention. To diegofu and ThalieXVII, she is most appreciative of you two donating a review/money every chapter. She will fly over to your home and invite you for coffee on her private island later on. P.S, Algol, you'll be now getting a raise." Reading that last sentence, Algol smirked and folded away the later. "To all you readers, come back next time. I will..." His voice trailed off as Raphael's hot air balloon flew past his windows and everyone in there was shouting about all the terrible things that he put them through. Too bad for them his window was sound proof so after awhile, he ignored them and turned back to the audience. "Until next time, farewell. Son, go get your sister. We're going to Olive Gardens for dinner."


	26. GO TO SLEEP ALREADY

At an underground stage with flashy lights on the ceiling, there were people crowding around a big smooth black stage and Algol was standing there with a microphone in his hand. "Welcome back everyone! As you all know from the last episode of Soul Clash, Raphael's team won the first trial! Let's give them a big round of applause!"

People screamed and cheered as Raphael and his team strode onto the stage. By using Soul Calibur's powers, Raphael had regrown the tooth he lost awhile ago and he flashed a bright smile to some of the ladies. Siegfried rolled his eyes and said, "Watch this." When the spotlight rolled over him, he flipped his gorgeous long hair and more girls screamed widely for him to do it again.

But before Siegfried could oblige, Hilde growled and dragged him away by the ear. "Did you forget that I was standing right beside you?"

Algol thought to himself, "Vain idiots..." When everyone on Raphael's team had a chance to wave and smile to their fans, he cleared his throat and said, "Now I would like everyone to give Team Draw some cheers since we've seen that they have come amazingly close to winning. Only to be thwarted by pure bad luck." From the other side, Raphael's team burst out laughing except for Kilik and Talim who were clapping as Zasalamel's team strode out from the curtains. When the cheering died down, Algol motioned for the camera team to move alittle closer to the stage. With a snap of his fingers, the lights above their head started to flash alittle more. "Are you all ready for the second trial?"

The audience below gave him a loud "Hell yea!" and they clapped their hands excitedly.

Algol smirked and when the people calmed down, he said, "Unfortunately, the teams will have a one week vacation to rest so you'll have to wait another week before you can see what the second trial is." And the crowd went 'Awwwww...'

But the people on both teams looked really happy when they heard that and Ivy said, "Perfect. I can finally spend some time working on some of my alchemist projects. After all, the key to eternal youth isn't going to find itself."

"Let's participate in the marathon and see who can win," suggested Mitsurugi randomly. Everyone on his teamed booed at the suggestion.

On the other team, Xianghua clapped her hands together happily. "Finally! I finally have some time to go out on a date with Kilik!"

Algol interrupted their day dreaming by saying, "However, you'll be spending your one week off doing something else instead."

"Uh, doing what?" asked Mitsurugi, scratching his cheek worriedly. He had been planning to get some hours of intense training in this week by fighting against Cervantes, Voldo, Lizardman, Zasalamel and Nightmare since no one wanted to run the marathon. He wasn't too fond on the idea of 'friendly matches' but he couldn't kill his teammates so there wasn't any other options besides practicing with their joke weapons.

Sophitia interrupted Algol as well and she said, "I really wanted to spend time with my family. What can be more important than that?"

Grinning, Algol pointed to the curtains and said, "A wedding between Astaroth and Ashlotte of course!" The mechanical doll and the golem stepped out to a... crowd of stunned faces, dropped jaws and wide eyes. After an hour of silence (yes it was an hour) where everyone was trying to absorb the words 'wedding, Astaroth and Ashlotte' that were present in that one short sentence.

Finally, Yoshimitsu burst out "You're getting married?"

Ashlotte nodded. "Affirmative. The wedding will commence in one week and the hours that I have calculated that is required to make this a success will be at least 150 hours."

"Wait a minute." Amy put up her hand and said, "A week has 168 hours. If your calculations are correct, we'll only have 18 hours of sleep."

"That's right maggots," laughed Astaroth.

"Hell no!" shouted Maxi furiously. "There is no way I'm going to help that freak have the happiest day of his life and there's no way I'm going to lose hours and hours of sleep helping him prepare his wedding."

Raphael crossed his arms and agreed with what Maxi said. "Why should my team sacrifice our vacation for such a thing? And if Astaroth gets married, who's going to replace him in Soul Calibur V?"

"Don't worry about it maggot," replied the golem. "Namco and Project Soul said that they'll be making another Astaroth or Astaroths. So I can retire, get married and live with my beautiful doll."

"But you're only seven years old," pointed out Nightmare.

Beside him, Lizardman hissed, "Shshshshs"

And Rock translated, "Lizardman said that he's not sure if that's legal since you're underage. And isn't Ashlotte just one year old when she was made for SCIV?"

"Ummm..."Algol shrugged and said, "Anything's possible with money. I mean love. Yes, I mean love. A judge and lawyer had finished looking over the paperworks so we're good to go. And just look at how cute the two are."

Everyone looked as Astaroth hugged Ashlotte and the crowd went 'Ahhh...'. Looking at Raphael, the mechanical doll said, "Algol had said that the amount of hours each person puts in for my wedding will be converted into points for the second trial. This is a chance for your team to get a head start."

After hearing that, Raphael knew what he must do. He turned towards Maxi and shrugged. "It looks like you have no choice but to participate in helping now."

But Maxi merely whipped out his nunchuks and held them out threateningly. "Oh no you don't. It's going to take brute force to force me to help that freak."

"Aww come on Maxi," said Cassandra. "Just think of it as helping Ashlotte. The poor thing finally found happiness. Albeit, she has really strange tastes." Cassandra shuddered and mumbled, "Who would have thought that the two would become a couple..."

"How in the world did that happen anyway?" asked Ivy, puzzled by such a relationship.

Everyone on Raphael's team was trying to convince Maxi to take part in planning the wedding while Zasalamel was quietly thinking about the situation. Noticing this, Taki nudged him. "What are you thinking about?"

"I was wondering if our team can survive on three hours of sleep."

Everyone on Team Draw stared at Zasalamel and finally Nightmare said, "Well, since I'm a evil spirit possessing a suit of armor, I don't really need to sleep."

Xianghua quickly piped up, "But the rest of us need more than three hours of sleep! Zasalamel! We're going to help with the wedding but we're not going to kill ourselves over it!"

"I agree," said Cervantes.

"Hshshs (Me too)," added Voldo.

Zasalamel narrowed his eyes at his wimpy team. "I'll give you guys two options."

"What is it?" asked Yun-Seong, hopeful that Zasalamel might have a shred of kindness in his heart for the well-being of his team.

"You guys can get sucked into my blackhole or you can all suck it up and make this the best wedding this world has ever seen. We've already lost the first trial and if we lose the second trial then it's over." Lightning sparked through his eyes and everyone backed away nervously. "So, which one do you guys pick?"

Tira pouted at him and she kicked the ground dejectedly. "But weddings are so... ewww. They're all gushy gushy and sparkly sparkly. I don't like that type of thing! I'm more of a funeral type of girl Zassy. In fact, I'm responsible for alot of funerals."

Everyone stepped away from her and Seong-Mina said to Zasalamel, "Errr... I guess we'll be picking the wedding. And I guess we should just ignore what Tira said?"

Clapping his hand for their attention, Algol said, "Everyone! You guys can go home for now but when you get up tomorrow, there's going to be alot of work! And for all of you lovely people watching this." Algol winked at the camera and the audience. "Stay tune as we catch all of this on tape. This is Algol, the Great Hero King and I bid you farewell."

* * *

><p>At Raphael's castle...<p>

Clearing his throat, Raphael looked down the long dining table and he clapped his hand for his team's attention. The bright chandelier shone down on their heads and from a short distance away, Maxi was watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in the elegant living room. He still didn't want to take any part in the wedding and nothing his team said could convince him so they decided to give him some time to himself. When everyone put down their spoons, forks and knives as they stopped eating dinner, they waited for Raphael to say something.

Leaning back in his chair, he said, "I just wanted to say that I was very happy that our team won the first trial and-"

"Aren't you going to give us some kind of reward or something? You, know... something to motivate us," interrupted Cassandra, thinking of purses, shoes and a vacation to the Dominican.

But he merely stared at her and gave her the -Why in the world should I give you guys something since you all like this world in the first place- look. To convey such a long sentence in a look took alot of skills and Kilik looked at the French man worriedly as his eyebrows rose up and down. "Are you alright Raphael? Your eyes are twitching like crazy and your eyebrows looks like they're having a seizure."

"I'm perfectly fine," snapped Raphael. "Anyway, I just wanted to say..." His voice trailed off as he watched Siegfried slurp down his soup. "Siegfried! Are you listening to me!"

The knight chugged down his soup and when he finished, he said, "Yea I'm listening. So what were you saying again?"

Raphael growled, "As I was saying, we should not let the first victory get to our head. This is a perfect opportunity to get some bonus points for the second trial coming up and I will not tolerate anyone slacking off. Except for Amy since she's my daughter and I don't want to see her get tired." He looked at his daughter fondly and said, "Amy, feel free to tell me if you get tired. I'll just get Kilik to take over for you and he'll do double the work."

Kilik blurted out, "What? Why me?"

"Because you're a nice guy and you couldn't bear it if Amy collapsed due to fatigue," answered Ivy who was sitting across from him. She stabbed her fork into her roast and sighed, "I can't wait for this wedding to be over."

Talim perked up beside Yoshimitsu and she had a rather thoughtful expression on her face. "I'm actually quite excited for the wedding. I've never been to one and it sounds like fun."

Sophitia laughed and looked at the young priestess. "It's alot of work but yes, it's quite fun. I remember my wedding with Rothion like it was just yesterday..."

Clapping his hand for their attention, Raphael said, "Anyway! Everyone, we're going to be losing alot of sleep over this stupid wedding that they've procrastinated on until the last week so we're going to bed early. Like right now."

Hilde glanced at the grandfather clock as Raphael's servants began cleaning up their table and she said, "But it's only 7pm. Even Talim doesn't go to bed that early."

"And it's bad to go to sleep when you've just eaten," added Talim, looking shocked at such an unhealthy idea. "The fat will go to your thighs!"

On impulse, everyone looked at their gorgeous thighs that they've worked hard for by undergoing hours and hours of weapon training. Thinking about it, Raphael said, "Alright. But after one hour, everyone is going to bed and I don't want to hear anyone complain."

"THERE'S NO WAY I'M GOING TO BED AT 8 O CLOCK AND THERE'S NO WAY I'M HELPING WITH THE WEDDING!" hollered Maxi from the living room.

Amy held up a fork and said, "Should I stab him?"

Kilik gasped and said, "Amy! For a young girl, you should not have such violent thoughts like that."

Quirking an eyebrow at him, Amy pointed to her father. "You can blame my father for that."

"Like father like daughter. Namuuuu..." said Yoshimitsu as he got up from the table.

* * *

><p>At Team Draw's treehouse...<p>

Everyone was eating Hawaiian takeout pizza since there was a discount at Domino Pizza that day and they were all taking turns playing SCIV. Voldo was currently playing against Rock and everything was going well as everyone had a fun time and enjoyed themselves. But then... "Bed time everyone," said Zasalamel as he looked at the clock. "It's already 8pm and we need all the rest we can get before the big day tomorrow."

"What are you, my mother?" said Cervantes as he stalked into the open kitchen for some more pizza.

Zasalamel crossed his arms and when the pirate walked past the small storage room, he snapped his fingers and a hundred bags containing coffee beans buried the undead pirate. "I forgot to mention that I went to Starbucks and bought us enough coffee beans to last a whole month." While Cervantes was drowning in bags of coffee beans, Zasalamel turned to the rest of the group who were complaining as well.

"Zassy! This is way too early!" whined Tira, sitting cross-legged on the wooden floor. She pulled at some threads on the Persian rug Taki had bought (to make the treehouse more liveable and nicer looking). "I want to go stargazing with Nighty tonight."

"Well I don't," whispered Nightmare as he drank some Pepsi from a plastic cup.

Seong-Mina added, "And sleeping after you just ate is bad for you. You'll get fat and you'll lose your small hips!"

All the women gasps and started whispering about how small their hips were. "I can't let myself get fat! Kilik might not like me anymore!" cried Xianghua.

Their girly chatter gave Zasalamel a headache and he said, "Alright! But I want all of you in bed before 9pm." Walking away, he headed for his bedroom to read Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

"Hey! Someone get me out of here!" shouted Cervantes as he sunk even deeper in the bags of coffee beans.

The Cervantes in the game shouted, "Sink into... darkness!" and everyone burst out laughing.

Mitsurugi grinned and shouted, "It's your line, not mine." And he pressed a few buttons on his controller and the Mitsurugi in the game defeated Cervantes.

Throwing down the controller, Tira hollered, "Cervy beards! You suck! I lost because I chose you!"

* * *

><p>Hilde and Cassandra walked down the hallway and they were talking about girl stuff as they headed to the gigantic girl's bathroom. Walking in, they saw that most of the girls were either done brushing their teeth or done their baths. In the middle of the room, a giant tub of new warm water was already prepared and rose petals floated on the surface. On a recliner, Ivy had a face mask on and she reading a magazine.<p>

"You know, I wonder how Astaroth and Ashlotte fell in love," said Sophitia as she brushed her hair.

"Maybe it's fate!" Talim said enthusiastically. She was quite a delusional romantic and all those stories about true love her grandmother told her gave her an innocent and sadly, unrealistic belief about love.

"Nah, maybe Ashlotte just doesn't have very high standards," replied Cassandra.

"I concur," agreed Amy, wondering how a mechanical doll with no emotions like Ashlotte could fall in love with such a violent guy like Astaroth. Just thinking about how the golem will look like in a suit for the wedding was laughable.

Brushing their teeth and applying on cream to protect and nourish their skin, they all gossiped to each other about the matter and they didn't notice that they've been in there for an hour until Raphael started pounding on the bathroom door. "You women have been in there for about an hour! Get out and go to bed right now or else I'm coming in!"

"For the sake of my honour, I'll impale you with my lance if you take one step in!" screamed Hilde as the rest of the girls began screaming as well.

"Fine! But hurry it up!" shouted Raphael as he stormed away. Walking downstairs in his baby bat pajamas, he went to get a glass of water. As he walked past the living room, he shouted, "Turn down the T.V Maxi! Just because you're not sleeping doesn't mean you can keep the rest of us up."

Maxi watched as Raphael walked away and he smiled mischievously. If his team are too tired to help with the wedding then Astaroth's wedding would fail. If it fails, Ashlotte might leave him and then that freak would be condemned to a life of misery and loneliness! Alright, it's time to ruin the wedding! He looked at the clock at noted that it was 8:33pm.

* * *

><p>"Tira, do I have to strap you down to your bed to get you to sleep?" Zasalamel asked dangerously as they two stood in front of her bedroom.<p>

She pouted and said, "I don't wanna."

"I already froze Lizardman's bedroom so that he would sleep so if I have to tranquilize you then I'm fine with that," replied Zasalamel.

Tira glanced over at the frozen bedroom to her right. Lizardman had been uncooperative since he wanted to stay up and finish a level on the Tower of Souls in SCIV. Knowing that lizards were affected by temperature, Zasalamel had thrown him into his bedroom and then he cast a spell to freeze the room to a really lower temperature. When Hwang asked if the lizard was going to be alright, Zasalamel merely said that a few hours of sunbathing in the morning should cure him.

Calculating her options, Tira turned into her gloomy mood and stomped into her bedroom. "You're such a killjoy!" And she slammed her door shut.

Giving a big sigh of exasperation, he walked around and opened the bedroom doors to check if they were sleeping. As he opened Taki's door, he nodded with approval and walked away. Quick as a flash, Taki opened her eyes and she leaped out of bed. There was a super secret ninja club meeting tonight and there was no way she was going to miss it. "Messatu!" And she used her ninja skill to teleport out of there.

Opening Nightmare's door, he said, "Nightmare. Go to bed."

"I told you that I don't need to sleep or eat. And technically, I am in bed," Nightmare replied cheekily. He was sitting in bed reading a magazine and he slowly turned to another page. "Go and pester those other guys."

Zasalamel rolled his eyes and stormed away.

"Hey! Can you close the door?" But Zasalamel didn't close the door so Nightmare had to do it himself. However, he was too lazy to get up so he leaned over and reached for it since his bed was right beside it. "Almost... there..." But then he slipped off the bed and crashed to the ground. "Oww..."

Opening Xianghua's door, he nodded once more in approval as the Chinese woman slept on and mumbled something about Kilik. After he was sure that everyone was asleep (except for Nightmare), he went into bed and looked at the clock. It said 9pm and he supposed that it was still a pretty good time to be in bed.

* * *

><p>It was really quiet at Raphael's castle and the only person who was awake was Maxi. When he was sure that everyone was asleep, he said, "Alright! Time to get started." Taking out his map of the castle, he looked at the thirty rooms he had circled. All of these rooms had a huge sound system and they were quite far apart from each other. Good. Getting off the couch, he turned the volume on the T.V to the max and ran for the next room.<p>

* * *

><p>"Huh?" Setsuka sat up in bed and winced as sound-waves hit her ears. Taking off the sleeping mask, she walked out into the hallway and encountered Ivy who also had her hands over her ears. The geisha was wearing a very nice pink sleeping gown adorned with cherry blossoms and Ivy was wearing... some really revealing purple chemise.<p>

The alchemist mouthed, "What's going on?"

Setsuka shrugged and noticed that the sounds were coming from all directions. Siegfried and Hilde also stormed out and the four stood in the hallway with confused expression. "Where is that coming from?" hollered Hilde. The princess was wearing a long blue nightgown and beside her, Siegfried was wearing some 'I love Soul Calibur' pajamas.

"I don't know!" shouted Kilik who also came out. His hair was a mess and he was only wearing his pajama pants.

Yoshimitsu (still wearing his mask even when he sleeps), Raphael, Amy and Talim came out next and Raphael looked livid. "It must be Maxi!"

"As if it can be anyone else father," said Amy. She was wearing a lacy purple nightgown with butterflies on it. Randomly taking out a fork, she said, "Can I stab him now?"

"Uhhh..." Talim was clutching her cat plushie and Raphael plushie and the pajamas she was wearing had smiling suns and moons on it and it made her look superadorable. Walking over to Kilik, she poked him and said, "It would probably be a good idea if you talked to him since you two are best friends Kilik. I don't want to see Amy stab him with a fork."

"What?" Kilik couldn't hear her due to the music that was suddenly added to the din.

"Talk to Maxi!" shouted Talim.

"Everyone! Go find Maxi and when you find him, I'm going to throw him into the dungeon!" commanded Raphael. "And turn down the volume when you find a stereo system or working T.V!" The team split up and they all headed out with a very grumpy expression on their face.

* * *

><p>The noise was so loud that it reached Team's Draw treehouse. Zasalamel sat up and whipped off his sleeping mask and growled. "What is going on?"<p>

In his Pocahontas pajamas, he walked out into the hallway and everyone was there waiting for him. "So... I'm guessing no one could sleep either?" asked Rock, wearing his animal print pajamas.

Yun-Seong was shirtless and he strolled over to a window of their treehouse. "I'm guessing that it's coming from Raphael's castle."

"Can we kill them? I'm going to rend the person who did this into pieces," growled gloomy Tira.

Nightmare laughed and rubbed his hands eagerly. "Let's head over there and cause trouble. I want to poke fun at Siegfried."

Mitsurugi crossed his arms over his oriental pyjamas. "A strong warrior needs his sleep. I say we head over there and stop this so that we can get back to sleep."

Xianghua looked really excited at the fact that she'll get to see Kilik so she raised her hand and said, "I agree! Let's go!"

"Hey, where's Taki?" asked Seong-Mina who was wearing a thin red nightgown.

"And where's Lizardman?" asked Hwang, taking off his starry nightcap and looking around.

Voldo shrugged and pointed to Rock who was dragging a frozen Lizardman out of the room. After a brief pause, Zasalamel stuck a piece of paper onto the frozen statue that said they were heading out to Raphael's castle. "He can read that when he thaws out."

"Taki's not in her room," said Xianghua as she opened the door to the ninja's room. "I guess she sneaked out."

Shaking his head, Zasalamel walked downstair to put on a coat. "I'll deal with her when she gets back but for now, let's tell Raphael to turn down the music. What in the world is his team thinking? Having a party at this time of night... Idiots.

* * *

><p>"Ahhhh! My virgin eyes!" screamed Talim as she blocked her eyes when she walked into one of Raphael's bonus room with Setsuka and Yoshimitsu.<p>

There was a making out scene that was quickly escalating into something more mature rated on the T.V and Yoshimitsu quickly ran in front of it and blocked it with his body to prevent Talim's innocence from getting tainted. "Will thou turned it off already?" Yoshimitsu shouted that to Setsuka and the geisha quickly grabbed the remote controller and hit the power button.

As she turned it off, Maxi ran past the open door with Siegfried in hot pursuit behind him. "Get back here Maxi!"

"Never! Ahahahahah! Catch me if you can!" shouted the hot sea dandy as he dashed away.

Gasping for breath, Siegfried stopped as Talim, Setsuka and Yoshimitsu came over and helped him up. "He's... a slippery one," gasped the breathless knight.

All of a sudden, 'Hotel Room Service by Pitbull' started playing really loudly in the room above them and the group knew that Maxi had just arrived at another room with a very loud sound surround system. "Ahhh! My virgin ears!" cried Talim as she tried to block out the offensive and sexual lyrics.

"Onto the next floor! Namu!" shouted Yoshimitsu as he raced up the stairs. For the sake of Talim's purity, Siegfried and Setsuka hurried up after him just as Maxi slid down the railing and laughed at them.

"You'll never catch me or any sleep tonight!"

* * *

><p>At Algol's office...<p>

"Greetings readers, welcome back to this story." Algol looked up from his paperworks and adjusted some papers around. "As you can see, I'm working out the budget for Astaroth's and Ashlotte's wedding and things are alittle chaotic. Oh, hold on awhile I make a phone call my good readers." Picking up his phone, he called home. "Kami? Are you and your brother going to bed yet? It's getting late so when I come home, you two had better not be playing SCIV alright? You want to wait till I come home? Alright, thank you sweetheart."

As he put down the phone, one of his employee burst into the room. "Boss! This is bad! Police are heading towards Raphael's castle!"

"WHAT?" Algol jumped up and said, "For what reason?"

"They said loud music was coming from his castle and it's disturbing everyone around the place within a hundred mile radius," reported his flustered employee. "And I believe Zasalamel was the one who made the call."

"You've got to be kidding me!" Algol got up, snatched his coat and began running for the door. But he quickly remembered something and he turned to the readers. "Darkwings13 says thanks for reading the story and she's very happy about the nice reviews from ThalieXVII, diegofu and Lopmion-12! Thank you very very very much and I hope all of you who reading this are enjoying yourselves." Finishing that, Algol ran out and called his adoptive daughter. "Kami, I'm going to be late tonight. You and your brother go to sleep and don't wait for me. Goodnight!"


	27. Wedding Plans

"This... is all your fault," hissed Raphael from behind the bars of his cell. "Thanks to you, we're stuck in jail until Talim's grandmother, Kilik's master and Hilde's father arrives to bail us out!"

Right across from him, Maxi merely stuck out his tongue at the vampire from his cell. "I didn't mean for the fireworks to ricochet like that and hit the police! I just set them up so that no one could sleep!" Indeed, when Maxi set fire to the ginormous crate of fireworks, the sky was ablazed with lights and some alien fanatics from far away claimed that aliens were visiting the earth.

In Raphael cell, Yoshimitsu said, "Well, they still blamed us for destroying their cars. And Zasalamel filed a law suit against us for nearly burning down his treehouse when one of your rocket went off course."

Leaning against the cold wall, Siegfried chuckled. "If only that happened...then Nightmare would have lost his entire collection of stamps. Too bad Taki showed up and used her ninja skills to put out the fire."

"Wait...Nightmare collects stamps?" asked Kilik, sitting on the cell bed he was sharing with Maxi.

As the men continued discussing this interesting subject, Raphael hollered to the cell a few metres away from him. "Amy! Are you alright in there darling? Are you cold? Amy! Is anyone bothering you?"

"KEEP IT DOWN! I'M TRYING TO SLEEP!" shouted the brawny criminal in the cell beside Raphael's.

"Shut up! I'm trying to talk to my daughter!" yelled Raphael angrily. "Amy! Why aren't you answering me?"

"I'm just fine father. Please keep it down," said an exasperated Amy as she continued playing cards with Cassandra, Setsuka and Sophitia.

"WHO'S YELLING AT THIS TIME OF NIGHT!"

"HEY! PEOPLE NEED TO SLEEP YOU KNOW! I HAVE FIVE HUNDRED HOURS OF PUBLIC WORK THAT I STILL NEED TO DO AND IF I DON'T GET MY SLEEP, I'LL KILL YOU!"

"SHUT UP YOU STUPID DOGS! MY DAUGHTER'S WELLBEING IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOU TRASH!"

"Hey! Keep it down!" shouted a police guard as he walked in to restore order. When everyone finally stopped bickering, the police guard said, "Who's Raphael Sorel and his team?"

"Us! Over here! Over here!" shouted a relieved princess as she rattled the bars on her cell. Hilde quickly shouted, "Can we go now? As a princess, I can't believe that I'm stuck in such a place!"

"Darling!" shouted Hilde's father as he entered. Running to his sweet daughter, he clasped her hands and sobbed. "What have you done to warrant such a punishment? We can't let the people of Wolkrone know that their princess has committed such terrible crimes."

"For the glory of the Krones, please forgive me father," cried Hilde, ashamed that her father had to visit her in jail and bail her out. "I swear on my honour that something like this will never happen again!" Yes... If Maxi did something stupid to throw her in jail again, she would impale him with her lance.

"Kilik! What have you done?" shouted Edgemaster sternly as the old man walked towards his pupil.

Kilik jumped off the bed and quickly kneeled before the bars of the cell. "Master! Please forgive me. I failed Maxi as a friend and because of that, the sleep of a hundred good citizens was disturbed and we nearly burned down a couple of police cars and a giant treehouse."

Edgemaster shook his head at his pupil. "You disappoint me Kilik. I expected better from you... Now... Seong-Mina is my favourite student."

"NOOOO!" wailed Kilik as he heard those words. He was always the favourite! Always! This can't be happening to him! Turning to Maxi, Kilik pointed an accusing finger at his friend. "This is all your fault!"

Edgemaster gave Kilik a disapproving look. "Placing the blame on others is a sign of weakness. Kilik, why have you become such a sinner?"

Hearing that, Kilik wailed once more. "I'm sorry! It's all my fault! Please forgive me master!"

"Talim?" Kalana, Talim's grandmother came in and she looked around for dear granddaughter.

"Grandma! Grandma!" Talim ran to the front of the cell and shook the bars while crying, "Grandma, please forgive me! I've failed you as a priestess of the wind."

"Why Talim? How can the last priestess of our esteemed tribe become such a heinous criminal?" sobbed her grandmother. "I made you recite your prayers every day! I even made you spend all of your free time with volunteering to help the poor so that you would grow up to be a pure priestess! Why isn't it working?"

Raphael thought to himself, "Child indoctrination..."

"I'm sorry grandma! I...Wahhhhh!" Talim grabbed Ivy and hid behind the tall woman. "Don't look at me grandma! I'm an evil crimminal!"

Ivy thought to herself, "It's all Maxi's fault...So why is Hilde, Kilik and Talim accepting these ridiculous accusations?"

"Hey, can you people leave already?" said the impatient police guard. "The rest of the criminals in this place needs to sleep."

* * *

><p>At Raphael's castle...<p>

Maxi was forcibly thrown into the dungeon by Raphael and Amy stabbed his butt with her fork for revenge since she was forced to endure a whole three hours in jail. But before the team could go to bed, they had to endure a two hour lecture from Hilde's father, Kilik's master and Talim's grandmother that went on and on and on and on and on. So when the old people finally left, Raphael's team hit the hay at 5am.

As for Zasalamel's team, they had a few more hours of sleep then Raphael's team but Zasalamel still wasn't very happy when his team finally hit the sack at 11pm. Taki was forgiven for sneaking out and the ninja was given alot of pats for her back that night for putting out the fire. Nightmare was especially grateful towards her and he gave her one a deluxe soul calibur stamp no one even knew existed.

* * *

><p>The next morning at 7am... "Get up people!" shouted Arcturus as he banged on all the doors of the sleeping people at Raphael's castle. "We're heading to my father's office to discuss some very important things for the wedding!"<p>

Stumbling out of their rooms, everyone stared at the young man with tired eyes until Ivy said, "How about five more minutes?"

"No," replied Arcturus sternly. "There's alot of things that needs to be done for the wedding and it's not my fault you guys slept so late last night."

"You... could never understand," said Siegfried as he toppled over and slept on the floor.

Raphael yawned tiredly and said, "I'll start the car. Everyone, you've got five minutes to get dressed.

Five minutes later...at Raphael's garage.

"You have a Batmobile?" shouted all the guys as they crowded around his car. The only person not there was Maxi since he was still stuck in Raphael's dungeon. As for the women, they were already inside and they were quietly napping while the males gawked at the cool car.

Smirking, Raphael gave his car a pat. "That's right. And just to let you know, it has costed me quite a fortune and I even customized it so that it would be big enough to fit all of you people."

Arcturus rolled his eyes and looked at his watch. "Guys... We're going to be late! Get a move on it!"

* * *

><p>At Team Draw's treehouse...<p>

"Everyone! Get up!" shouted as Kami walked around and kicked down all of the doors. She accidentally kicked down the bathroom door and Hwang screamed as he tried to cover himself with the newspaper that he was reading. "EEEEEEEKKKKK! I'm sorry!" And Kami quickly closed her eyes before she could see anything that was potentially scarring for her mind.

"Get out!" And the Korean man quickly slammed the door shut.

When everyone had exited their bedrooms, the oni girl clapped her hands together for their attention. "Guys! Hurry up and get dressed! My father's waiting for you guys at his office so that we can get stuff started for the wedding! Hey, where's Nightmare?"

"He's having Souls for breakfast," said Mitsurugi as the tired samurai rubbed his eyes.

Kami quirked an eyebrow at that. "Souls?"

"Yep," said Nightmare as he appeared with a bowl of cereal in his mutated hand. "It's chock full of nutrients and vitamins so that I can have the energy to start my day of evilness. Want some? I used soy milk!"

Kami politely declined and said to Zasalamel, "You better hurry up. He said that the first team to arrive at his office will get bonus points."

Hearing that, Zasalamel ran downstairs and headed for the ladder to descend out of the treehouse. "Everyone! Get your butts outside while I get the van ready!" (He had gotten their team's van back after Raphael had it towed away in chapter 3).

"Can't I have some peace and quiet even when I'm in the bathroom!" shouted Hwang as he put away his Korean newspaper with an annoyed glance. "I mean, this is the only place I can read the news in silence."

"What? You were in there to read the newspaper!" Rock as he pounded on the door. "I actually have to use it for a 'real' reason!"

"Shshss? (Couldn't you just watch the news on T.V)?" asked Voldo.

Yun-Seong answered that question for his friend. "Zasalamel was too cheap to get us the Korean channel."

"Everyone! Get your butts into the van right now!" ordered Zasalamel, strapping on his seat belt and checking the side mirrors.

"But we're still in our pajamas!" shouted Xianghua.

"I don't care! We're getting those bonus points no matter what!" When everyone was squashed comfortably in the van, Zasalamel stomped on foot down and they roared out of Soul Land to head downtown.

Nightmare was trying to finish his cereal in the car and the milk splashed everywhere as Zasalamel turned sharply at corners. "Ahhh! My souls!"

"Who let you eat in the car?" shouted Seong-Mina as milk drenched her right shoulder.

Taking his eyes off the road for a few seconds, Zasalamel shouted, "What's going on back there?"

"Watch out!" shrieked Kami who was sitting beside him in the front.

Everyone started screaming as the van headed towards an old lady who was crossing the street. Slamming on the brakes, everyone watched with wide eyes as the car screamed to a stop...a few millimetres away from hitting the old woman who continued walking away. "That... nearly gave me a heart attack," thought Taki as she leaned back in her chair. Beside her, Lizardman fainted.

After that incident, Zasalamel glued his eyes to the window while continuing to drive at a heart pounding speed that would probably earn him a few tickets if he was caught. But thanks to his ability to see the future, he knew when he should slow down when there were hidden cameras and passing police cars. Coming to a stop in front of a red light, he glanced to the right briefly to look at the Batmobile beside him before turning back. But then he noticed who was driving the car beside him and he growled, "Sorel?"

"Zasalamel," hissed Raphael as he noticed as well. Rolling down the window, he snickered. "Monsieur Baldie, you have a strange taste in clothes I must say. Wearing that pajama at this time of day."

"Shut up Sorel. Why are you sitting on the right side of your car anyway?" asked Zasalamel, while keeping an eye on the red light as well.

Raphael rolled his eyes. "I'm left handed you dunce. And with the amount of money I have, I customized the car to suit all of my needs. Unlike that junk you're driving."

"It's all about the driver, not the car you moron," replied Zasalamel. "Let's see who'll arrive at Algol's office first."

"Alright, let's get this race started!" Raphael pushed a button and music started blasting from his car. He had picked Tokyo Drift (Fast and Furious) by Teriyaki Boyz and as the light turned green, he zoomed out of there.

"Can thou keep it down!" groaned Yoshimitsu as he was rudely awakened by the loud music.

"What's happening?" Hilde rubbed her eyes and blinked wearily. Suddenly, she gasped as she looked at the dashboard from her seat behind Raphael's. "You're going 150 km/h! Are you insane!"

In Zasalamel's van, Tira was saying something slightly different. "Faster Zassy! Faster! 160 km/h is toooo slooooowwww."

Xianghua and Seong-Mina were hugging each other and they screeched, "Are you crazy?"

In fear, Lizardman was hugging Taki with all his might and the ninja wasn't too happy about this. "Lizardman! Stop acting like such a baby!"

In the backseat, Nightmare threw up on Mitsurugi and Hwang. Luckily for Rock, he managed to dodge the vomit at the last second by using Yun-Seong as a shield but of course, Yun-Seong wasn't too happy about this. Behind them, Voldo and Cervantes groaned at the smell. "Hsssshhhh... (Gross)..."

"Cervantes! Go and shoot Raphael's car!" ordered Zasalamel as he changed lane and went in front of Raphael's Batmobile. "I don't care if you have to blast a few holes in my windows, I'll repair them later!"

"Alright then." Aiming his pistol sword at Raphael, Cervantes fired. "Take this!"

Spinning the wheel wildly, Raphael changed onto the next lane to avoid getting shot at and he shouted to Ivy, "Ivy! Do something about that father of yours!" Next, he gave the driver beside him the finger since the dude shouted that Raphael was a horrible driver and that he shouldn't be driving if he has pink eye. "I don't have pink eye you moron! I'm merely infected with Soul Edge!"

Ivy glanced at the van in front of her and glared at her father. "You don't even have to ask." Taking out her whip, the alchemist rolled down the window and with s flick of her wrist, she said, "Go get him Valentine!" Her whip broke into small pieces and the metal flew towards Zasalamel's van and made alot of scratches on it.

Rolling down the window, Taki stuck her head out and she held a few ninja bombs in her hand. "Don't even try!" Hurling them at Raphael, she watched with satisfaction as smoke engulfed their car. Raphael's Batmobile spun down the road like crazy and it headed right for a tattoo shop! The artist inside gasped and the dragon tattoo he was drawing on his client back's got messed up. "Oh my god..."

"Wind!"

Summoning a strong wind, Talim cleared the smoke away and Raphael managed to avoid driving into the shop. Spinning the wheel sharply, he speed down the road to catch up to Zasalamel and in the process, he ran past a red light. Next, Sophitia clasped her hands together. "Zeus! Hear my prayers and strike them with lightning!" Lightning rained down on Zasalamel's van and their car nearly dropped into a ditch since one of the lightning bolts made a giant hole in the road.

Veering onto the left lane, Zasalamel stomped down on the pedal even harder and shouted to Tira, "Tira! Summon your ravens and help out!"

Popping her head out the window, Tira grinned evilly and whistled loudly for her ravens. "Gooooo get them! And peck out a few eyes if you get the chance my darlings"

A million ravens flocked to Raphael's car and the vampire had to use the windshield wipers to remove the birds. Getting out of the car, Kilik and Setsuka climbed on the roof of the car and they had to use their weapons to bat away the black birds. At the same time, they had to hang on to the roof of the car to make sure they didn't fall off and get run over. In the process, they got pooped on. "This is nasty!" shouted Kilik as he got covered in bird waste.

Holding her umbrella up, Setsuka mananged to avoid most of the nasty stuff but then she shouted, "Raphael! You're heading towards a dead end!"

"WHAT?" Raphael turned the speed of his wipers to 'light speed' and when the last bird got batted away, he cursed and braked hard. Screeching to a stop, he avoid crashing into a wall while Zasalamel's van speeded away.

* * *

><p>Parking in a handicap spot, the team rushed out and hope they wouldn't get a ticket but they didn't really have time to look for an appropriate parking spot. Arriving at the skyscraper, Zasalamel and his team entered the building and ran across the polished marble floor while bewildered employees wearing nice suits and formal wear stared at them. Running to the front desk, Zasalamel gasped, "I have a meeting with...whew... Algol."<p>

The lady typed something on the computer and nodded. "He's on the 50th floor and you should be able to tell which one is his since his name is on the door. By the way, all of our elevators are out of service except for that one." And she pointed to the furthest one.

Thanking the lady, they squashed themselves into the elevator and just as the door closed, Zasalamel saw Raphael's team arriving through the front doors and grinned triumphantly. "I hope you guys enjoy climbing fifty floors of stairs. All of the elevators are broken except for the one I'm in."

Just then..."This is fun!" And Nightmare pressed all the numbers for each floor.

"NIGHTMARE! YOU IDIOT!"

* * *

><p>"Curse you Zasalamel!" Doing a quick stretch, Raphael pointed to the door that said, 'Stairs' and commanded his team to start running.<p>

After ten floors of stairs...

"OH MY GOD! THIS IS WORSE THAN CLIMBING THAT STUPID TOWER IN SCIV!" After hollering that, Siegfried collapsed on the stairs and wiped away the sweat on his forehead. "I can't take this anymore..."

After a brief pause to breath, Raphael said, "You fool! We're not giving up and that's final. Hilde! For your honor, carry your boyfriend!"

Hilde gave him a -Do you seriously think I can carry my boyfriend up fourty flight of stairs-look. Seeing that, Raphael chuckled. "You do realize that he's only 110 pounds right?"

"Bu-But... that's the same weight as Hilde!" cried Yoshimitsu. The princess quickly kicked him in the knee since women did not like people to know about their weight.

Hearing this Ivy laughed. "Siegfried... so it would seem you weigh as much as a girl."

"It's pure muscle!" argued the blushing knight. "And you're heavier than me Ivy!" That answer resulted in him getting kicked down the stairs. Glancing down, Arcturus wondered why he was stuck with this team.

* * *

><p>At Algol's office, Astaroth and Ashlotte were sitting over by the sofa and they were watching some stuff on the giant T.V that Algol had installed into his office. He even had a bar in there! Pouring himself a drink, he glanced up as Team Draw kicked open the door. Panting, Mitsurugi wiped away some sweat and said, "Algol... prepare to fight me!"<p>

"Uhhh... what?"

"You dolt!" Tira smacked Mitsurugi and said, "You can fight a strong guy later. We got bigger fishes to fry."

Taki sighed and pointed at Algol. "Our team arrived here first. So... how much bonus points did we earn?"

Gulping down his drink, Algol said, "You guys get... twenty points."

"Shshshs shshhhs hss (We nearly had five car accidents on the way here and I didn't even get to change out of my pajamas and you're saying we only got twenty points)?" hissed Voldo, as he made more angry hand gestures.

Walking over to the giant window, Algol peered outside and nodded. "Yes. But you should know th-"

"WE'RE HERE! WE'RE HERE!" shouted Kilik as everyone on his team burst into the room.

Xianghua sighed dreamily at his dishevelled hair and red face. "Kilik... you're so hot..."

"Yea, all that running is... whew! Making me thirsty," said Kilik tiredly. "But we... still didn't beat your team..."

Algol clapped his hands together and added, "And your team will lose twenty points."

"WHAT?" Raphael looked at Algol with disbelief. "You never said anything about losing points!"

"You guys are way late!" shouted Algol. "I was going to deduct points from both your teams but since Team Draw arrived here first, they got 40 points which I subtracted the 20 from so now they only received 20 points."

Seong-Mina glanced up with a thoughtful expression on her face. "So that's why..."

"How long are you maggots going to keep us waiting?" Astaroth crossed his arms and pointed to the seating area. "Let's get a move on it people!"

A few people headed over to the bar for a quick drink and after a few minutes when everyone was settled down, Ashlotte handed out a very very very very very very long list.

THINGS TO DO FOR THE BEST AND MOST MAGICAL WEDDING IN THIS WORLD

*There will be one thousand guests

*They wedding will commence for three days straight

*One million dollar budget

*The wedding will be hosted at Soul Land

*A large tent as big as ten football field will be used for the ceremonies.

1-Pick a restaurant and at least one hundred dishes of food. One hundred caterers are needed as well.

2-Obtain and guard the wedding rings.

3-Entertainment besides the ride will be required.

4-Music will be needed but death metal is banned.

5-A photographer and videograper must be alert and well experience. Find someone or take the job yourself.

6-Make lots and lots of floral arrangements.

7-Make the wedding cake.

8-Prepare gift bags for the guests.

9-Reserve a limosine.

10-Obtain marriage license requirement.

11-Pick out the wedding dress for the bride and the groom's outfit. Or make it.

12-Pick out the dresses for the bridesmaid and the outfits for the men.

13-Make invitations by hand and deliver them to the guests. No matter how far away they live.

14-Find a priest to conduct the marriage ceremony or someone who has the authority to do so.

15-Find a really good hairdresser.

After reading the list, Zasalamel and Raphael glanced at each other. "So... who's in charge of what?" asked Raphael.

Algol held out the hat of mystery and grinned. Behind him, Kami and Arcturus were cutting up a million pieces of paper and scribbling numbers on it. "Why... I'll draw out the numbers and see what happens of course."

"Look daddy! I made snowflakes!" Kami held up a bunch of really neat snowflakes and everyone stared...

* * *

><p>Current Amount of Points For Each Team:<p>

1) Raphael's Team- -20 points

2)Zasalamel's Team- 20 points

* * *

><p>In Raphael's dungeon...<p>

Maxi glanced up at the readers with a grin as he continued digging his way out of the dungeon by using a spoon. "Ha, those guys thought that they've seen the last of me.. But I'll show them what I'm capable of!" He dug even faster and grunted, "If you readers out there have any ideas on how to spoil that freak's wedding, feel free to text the message/review to me. After I get out of here, I'll have to get my butt wound checked out at the hospital to make sure that the wound isn't infected." Maxi shook his head at the memory. "Such a violent girl...Anyway! I have plenty of treasures hidden away from my pirate days and you can bet I know some shady people around here. This wedding... is going down. Muhahahahah!"

As he decended down the hole, Maxi realized something and he popped his head back up. "Darkwings13 says thank you to the two new readers who favorited this, Battlet and StrawberryOkami101. Thank you very much and also, Thalie, Diegofu and Iyana Shinzo1216 for the wonderful reviews. Because of all this encouragement, Darkwings13 soul still burns. And of course, my soul will continue burning until I ruin Astaroth's wedding for my revenge." And Maxi flashed them another evil smile. "Well, I gotta go. I wouldn't want to be caught and thrown into this nasty place again!" With that, Maxi tunneled out of there. "Oooh! A gold bar!"


	28. Preparing for a Wedding Part 1

Group 2 in charge of the wedding rings-Siegfried, Cassandra and Nightmare.

At a jewelry store, Ashlotte was walking around and admiring the wedding rings while Cassandra pointed to different ones enthusiastically. "Here! Try this one Ashlotte! Or how about this one! Here, this one would look gorgeous on you."

Astaroth looked at his love with dreamy eyes while Siegfried and Nightmare stared at each other with extreme hatred behind the golem's back. The two couldn't believe that they were stuck in the same group and they had done everything they could to get Algol to switch them with different members but unfortunately, the Hero King refused their bribes and their threats didn't scare him either. Not even when Nightmare whipped out Soul Edge! All Algol did was take out a can of pepper spray and he shot three quick blasts at the evil sword. This caused Soul Edge, the greatest evil sword of all times, to start crying like a baby. So then, Nightmare had to run over to the optometrist and get the doctor to begin treating Soul Edge.

"Astaroth, what is your opinion on this ring that I've chosen?" asked Ashlotte, holding out her hand for him to see. The shiny diamond ring sparkled on her finger and the sales person had the 'please buy this so I can get a raise for selling such a ridiculous priced ring to you' look as she stood beside the beautiful mechanical doll.

Her fiance replied, "Anything for you sweetheart." He turned to the sales person and said, "Where's the other one?"

"Right here," said Cassandra, handing over the other ring for Astaroth.

Everyone stared at the ring for a moment when finally, someone spoke up and pointed out the obvious. "How the hell will you wear that thing?" said Nightmare, pointing to the tiny ring and then pointing to the golem's really large finger.

"No problem, it just takes alittle bit of strength to squish it on," replied Astaroth confidently as he began the long struggle to wear the ring.

Five hours later...

"Maybe we should tell them to customize you with a different size ring with the same design," suggested Siegfried hesitantly.

"No! I can do this! Now keep your trap shut maggot!" And Astaroth continued trying to jam the ring on to his finger. Finally, he somehow managed it and he held his hand up proudly for everyone to see. "See! I told you worms I could do it!"

Everyone in the jewelry store that witnessed that epic struggle clapped their hands and cheered. But then... the unthinkable happened...The 50k gold ring with the diamond mined all the way in Australia cracked and then it broke off his finger. Staring down at the destroyed ring, the salesperson cleared her voice. "You're going to be paying for that sir."

Ashlotte asked, "What is the price for this circular metal object that we were going to use in our marriage ceremony?"

"Fifty thousand dollars."

Siegfried, Nightmare, and Cassandra gasped at the exorbitant price. "Holy Calibur..."

"I see..." Astaroth pointed to the three and said, "Those guys will handle it." Grabbing Ashlotte's hand, he dashed out of there with his love.

"Get your butt back here before I devour your soul!" shouted Nightmare, raising up his demented arm in anger.

"Why should we pay for this?" added Cassandra, chucking the metal fragments at Astaroth.

Randomly, some rich woman pointed to Siegfried and said, "My! What a lifelike crystal statue! I must simply buy him!" Because the knight was wearing his crystal armour (1P from SCIV), one couldn't really blame the lady for making such a mistake.

"I'm not a statue!" shouted Siegfried, backing away from the lady. "Astaroth come back here! This wasn't a part of the plan!"

"Too bad! You guys are in charge of this part of the wedding plans! So long maggots!"

From the Guess store across the jewelry store, Maxi was hiding behind some manequins and he quickly jotted down some important notes. So far, he wrote...

1-Astaroth has giant sausage size fingers.

2-Must head over to Mcdonalds for breakfast.

But then he quickly scribble out #2 since that was stupid.

* * *

><p>Three hours later...<p>

Group 14 in charge of finding someone who has the authority to conduct the marriage ceremony- Kilik and Talim.

"Astaroth! Ashlotte! There you are!" Kilik looked at his watch with relief as they arrived at Raphael's castle. He was sitting on the couch with Talim and they had clipboards out and ready for the two as they sat down in Raphael's nice living room. All of the furniture were white and this complimented the wallpaper since it was a dark red. Bright sunlight streamed through the windows and Talim had opened the windows so that a nice wind flowed through. The priestess then fetched the golem and the doll a glass of water and said, "Here you go."

Ashlotte glance down at the liquid and said, "I'm afraid I cannot absorb this H2O into my system."

Talim smacked herself and said, "I'm so sorry! I can't believe I forgot! Wait a minute, I'll be right back." After a few minutes, she returned with a cup of oil. "Here you go."

"Thank you," said Ashlotte, sipping it with a rather pleased expression on her face.

"So, what kind of wedding do you have in mind?" asked Kilik. He then shoved the clipboard in Astaroth's face and said, "Personally, I vote for a Buddhist wedding! I have some monk friends and one of them would be willing to conduct your wedding!"

Talim then shoved her clipboard into Astaroth's face. "How about a traditional wedding of my village instead! I'll get me grandmother to ask our wind deity to bless you with many years of happiness! We'll even throw in a windmill for you guys as a wedding gift."

Kilik flipped through a few pages and offered some more suggestions. "Or how about a Hindu wedding? Maybe a Christian wedding? Or how about a-"

"STOP! STOP!" shouted Astaroth, smacking away the clipboards. "We don't want any religious person to conduct our wedding besides the two priests that made Ashlotte."

Ashlotte nodded. "I want them to conduct the wedding. If they do, I won't feel the guilt of failing my mission and this way, it will show that they have decided to accept Astaroth."

Talim and Kilik glanced at each other. "So... it's going to be Fygul Cestemus wedding?"

"Correct," answered Ashlotte, finishing her drink and standing up. "If you'll excuse us, we need to head to the dress shop in twenty minutes and fifteen seconds."

After they left, Talim whispered to Kilik, "We're going to have to travel all the way to their cult, find their priests, and convince them to conduct the wedding?"

The monk sighed and whipped out his cellphone. "I'll buy us the air plane tickets...Talim, go and check out the bus schedule so that we can get to the airport."

* * *

><p>"I've... never stepped foot into a kitchen before," mumbled Hilde as she, Sophitia and Tira looked around for the ingredient to make the wedding cake. This was to be expected since she was a royal princess of Wolkrone and when it comes to the arts, education, and ways of battle, there was no one who could claim first place if she claimed second. However, things such as cooking were totally new to her and let's just say that the ability to differentiate between salt and sugar could be considered the biggest cooking accomplishment of dear Hilde's life. As a princess, she always had other methods she could rely on. Money for example, was usually a reliable method... and Hilde said, "Why can't we just go and buy a cake?"<p>

"Of course not! Homemade food is always the best!" said Sophitia, taking out some pots and pans. "You guys can count on me. After all, my family runs a very good bakery at home. And it took me a very long time to convince the owner of this cake shop to lend us her kitchen. Look at the quality of their stuff!" And she held up a gleaming silver pan.

Tira pouted at the group she was in and she crossed her arms. "I hate cooking! This is so boring!" When the other two women ignored her, she growled and wandered off to look for something to distract her. Picking up a small bag of flour, she remembered something interesting. A few days ago, she saw Zasalamel read a book about random and interesting facts. One of the facts that she had read when she picked it up to throw at Mitsurugi so that he would move out of the way of the T.V screen was... flour can explode. Grinning, she took out a match and lit it up. Holding it to the flour, she laughed excitedly as it caught on fire.

Finally, Sophitia noticed and she screamed, "Hilde! Run!"

"Huh?"

The princess was blown backward as the explosion happened and let's just say they had to fork over alot of money for the really angry shop owner. After that fiasco, the three decided that it would be much safer if they just bought the cake. Since Tira should never be allowed to step foot into any kitchen in this world. So before their cake making day could start, it was already over.

* * *

><p>Maxi caught this on the news as he stalked Mitsurugi and Taki through the electronic shop, TimeShop. He quickly took out his notebook and wrote down...<p>

3-Flour can explode.

Hiding behind the giant T.V screen, he watched as the ninja and the samurai picked up an expensive looking camera. It's quite obvious by now that they're...

Group 6 which is in charge of the photographer and videographer- Mitsurugi and Taki.

"I don't understand these fancy gadgets," grumbled Mitsurugi, pressing a few buttons on the camera he was holding while random people walked past him.

Beside him, Taki looked at the expensive camera and frowned. She was known to be a talented ninja, blacksmith, spy, demon hunter, and basically, she was just really talented. But her understanding of technology only comprised of watching T.V and using the microwave. The fact that Mitsurugi skills were only samurai or farmer related, this meant that things weren't going so good for them. "Why don't we just hire a photographer and videographer?"

Mitsurugi snorted as he heard that. "That would mean admitting that we're not good enough woman. I, Heishiro Mitsurugi cannot allow my reputation as the strongest man to be ruined."

"What does being technology stupid have to do with anything," said Taki, leaning back to admire a few more cameras.

The samurai rolled his eyes at her as he said, "You could never understand."

"That's Siegfried's line."

Mitsurugi just growled and turned away from her. Grabbing another camera, he went over to the cashier to pay for them. Watching him leave, Taki scratched her chin thoughtfully. She had just remembered that she had demon hunting techniques that could prove useful to this mission. Alright... it looks like they're cameras are going to be using will be undergoing some strange customization.

* * *

><p>"Hshshs (Are you sure this is a good idea)?" asked Voldo, standing beside Lizardman as the two looked at the choir of lizardmen Lizardman had assembled. Things were going to get rather confusing at this point so let's just stick to using Lizardman's real name; Aeon, so that people don't get confused.<p>

They were at the Astaroth's stage, the Kunpaetku stage (from SCII) where there was an island in the middle of a green lake. At Soul Land, boat rides that involved the lizardmen rowing you around the the lake was the main entertainment and Raphael had even considered turning this stage into a slime/water park. But right now, the place was closed because Aeon had called upon his kins so that he and Voldo can take care of their mission.

Group 4 that is in charge of music-Voldo and Aeon

Aeon gave Voldo a reassuring hiss and motioned for the Italian man to start playing the piano they had somehow dragged all the way down here. With a sigh, Voldo began playing. Raising his scaly reptile hands the way a musician would, the lizardman choir started singing. To them, it sounded like they were a choir of angels. To Voldo, it just felt like he was listening to a bunch of snakes that were high on drugs. After five minutes, he thought to himself this must be the worst form of torture on Earth and he began wondering if his master would forgive him if he just took a few treasure to hire the White Eye Carrots(Black Eye Peas were touring somewhere in Canada) to play at the wedding instead.

* * *

><p>"Don't talk back to your father Ivy," said Cervantes, narrowing his eyes at his deeply hated daughter who was glaring back at him with an equal amount of dislike.<p>

The two were at Ivy's stage, Valentine Mansion at Soul Land. This form of entertainment for this stage was... chemical fun time basically. You just had to fork over ten bucks so that you would be free to mix dangerous chemicals and turn it into a drink. Of course, this went against the laws of safety so it was currently closed until Raphael could obtain some legal papers to open it. But for now, it was the ideal spot for Ivy and her father to do their part for Astaroth's and Ashlotte's wedding.

Group 3 that's in charge of entertainment beside Soul Land's rides...-Ivy and Cervantes

Leaning against a table of chemicals, Ivy replied, "That's not going to work. I don't consider you to be my father."

"I really couldn't care, daughter." Cervantes let sarcasm drip thick into his voice. "There is no way, we're going to put on a magic show."

"It's a good thing I didn't inherit your brains," retorted Ivy, crossing her arms as she continued the longest conversation they ever had in history. Which was going strong at about two minutes so far. "The magic show works because I know alchemy, while you're a rotting dead pirate whose immortal. What else would work besides this?"

Cervantes growled and said, "The mighty Cervantes does not entertain others!"

"But that's what we're supposed to do for our mission!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"No!"

Counting to ten, Ivy calmed herself. It was a good thing she had a back-up plan. Snapping her fingers, her sword whipped forth and snatched a diamond the size of a dinosaur egg out from under the table. Holding it in her hand, she said, "As a pirate, I know you won't be able to resist".

Indeed, Cervantes gasped and held his hands to his cheeks like a schoolgirl. "That... that... I must have it! Give it to me!"

Ivy quickly took out a vial of acid and held it above the diamond threateningly. "Oh no you don't. If you don't agree to the magic show idea, I will melt this thing before your eyes."

"What!" His hands tightened into fists as he thought about it. But that beautiful diamond... probably cost as much as his ship! So finally, he agreed since he loved treasures. That was the way of a pirate after all.

Ivy smirked and looked down at the cursed diamond in her hand. It was supposed to bring ill fortune, bad breath, and make its owner become obsess with the color pink. She couldn't wait to hand it over actually. Of course, the magic show would have to come first. And she knew what the best act of the show would be... Cutting Cervantes in half with a saw and making sure he didn't come back. Or maybe the Table of Death...Or squish him into a box and stab him with nine swords. So many choices, so little times.

* * *

><p>Standing at a bus stop, Seong-Mina and Xianghua waited impatiently for the bus to arrive. "Mina, why couldn't we just walk?"<p>

The Korean woman replied, "I heard on the radio that we didn't have to pay to use the bus today. That way, we can save money you know."

Xianghua glanced up at the sun and said, "But it's getting quite late. We're supposed to be at the bridal shop to help pick out a wedding dress for Ashlotte and a outfit for Astaroth."

Group 11 that's in charge of the wedding outfits-Xianghua and Seong-Mina

While waiting, Xianghua opened the wedding magazine she had just bought and she began flipping through it. In her imagination, she pictured herself wearing the dress when she gets married to Kilik and she squealed in happiness. After waiting for another half an hour, Seong-Mina stomped her foot down. "What's taking so long! Astaroth is going to kill us for making him wait so long!"

At the bridal shop...

Astaroth sat in the waiting room with his love and growled, "I'll kill those maggots for making me wait so long.

* * *

><p>"Ahh... That was one good lunch." Yun-Seong burped and he lounged in chair lazily at the fancy Italian restaurant they were in.<p>

Beside him, Hwang shot the younger man a look and said, "That is not very..." But before he could finish, Rock also burped beside him. Giving the waiters an apologetic glance, Hwang glared at the two of them. "Since you both seem so happy about the food, why don't we pick out the one hundred dishes already."

Yun-Seong immediately sat up in his chair. "No!" I still want to try that Indian restaurant!"

"I want to try that Japanese restaurant." But then Rock froze when the two Koreans shot him death glares and he quickly remembered that Korea and Japan was at war during SCIV. "Ummm... how about Thai food?" The three continued discussing on food choices while they told the waiter to send the bill to Zasalamel.

Hiding underneath their table which was covered by a lacy white tablecloth, Maxi scribbled into his notebook.

#4-Food poisoning will work wonders on ruining a wedding.

* * *

><p>Two hours later...<p>

Admiring her curls, Amy nodded in approval at the professional hair dresser who was styling her hair. Beside her, Setsuka was dying her hair a medium brown color. "This is the perfect man to get Ashlotte's hair done for the wedding," said the geisha as she continued reading a magazine.

Group 15 that's in charge of finding a hairdresser and make-up artist -Amy and Setsuka.

"I agree," replied the gothic lolita, examining her nails with a bored expression. "Now what's your name again?" The question was directed at her hairdresser.

"My dear you can call me Tracy! By the way, you have such beautiful hair!" gushed her hairdresser as he sprayed her hair with more hairspray.

Setsuka arched an eyebrow at the man's name. Who in the world would name their son Tracy?

"I know. Anyway, we shall be hiring you to do Ashlotte's hair for her wedding, understood?" replied Amy curtly, as she turned her head to see both sides of her pigtails. "You can send the bill to my father. Setsuka, after your hair is done, we should go and look for a make-up artist next."

Disguised as a hairdresser, Maxi pushed the sunglasses up his nose and wrote down...

#5-My new identity will be Tracy when the hair dressing part comes.

* * *

><p>In the middle of the road on a quiet street, loud voices carried through the air as three men stood there arguing with each other. Now, the reason why the bus that Xianghua and Seong-Mina were waiting for hadn't arrived yet could be explained quite simply. Zasalamel and Raphael had once again tried to race each other but this time, it ended in a car accident that blocked the entire road and it also hit the bus (which was thankfully empty) that was supposed to be arriving at Xianghua's and Seong-Mina's bus stop. It was a rather empty road though. Tall green trees lined the sidewalk and an empty field of grass laid on each side of the road and birds chirped as they flew over the heads of the arguing men below them.<p>

Group 6 (floral arrangements), 8 (gift bags), 9 (reserve a limosine), 10 (obtain marriage license for Astaroth and Ashlotte), 13 (Make invitations and deliver them)- Raphael and Zasalamel

As the leader of their teams, they had to be in charge of more stuff than the other guys. So with this gigantic workload, the two should have been working hard instead of arguing with each other. Alas... they continued to let their emotions get the best of them.

Pointing to his damaged Batmobile, Raphael hissed, "I hope you're happy! This thing will take forever to fix!"

Zasalamel replied, "It's a scratch mark. Get over it Sorel."

"What!" Raphael gestured to the torn metal and just to prove his point, the driver's door fell off and it hit the ground with a loud clack. "You call this a scratch!"

"Hey! What's going on here!" shouted a police officer, arriving at the scene and shooing away the people who had gathered around to stare.

"It's his fault!" Raphael and Zasalamel both pointed accusing fingers at each other.

But then the unfortunate bus driver(who was thankfully uninjured) interrupted them and began relaying the truth. "Both of these guys were speeding while shouting insults at each other. The vain blonde guy was checking himself out in his side mirror and he also applied on some lipstick."

"It's not lipstick! It's a chapstick! My lips were dry!"

The bus driver shot Raphael an annoyed glance. "And when some hot girls drove past him, he glued his eyes on to them instead of the road and he crashed into the back of my bus."

Zasalamel chuckled and said, "I would like to see how you'll get out of this one Sorel."

"Oh I'm not done yet." The bus driver pointed to Zasalamel and said, "You were texting on your cellphone and then you cast some kind of magic spell to make black ice appear on the road which MISSED that French guy and it hit MY BUS INSTEAD!"

The police officer looked at the ice covering the side of the bus and then he looked at Raphael and Zasalamel. "It looks like you're either going to have to pay a very large fine or spend some time in the slammers."

Walking past them, Edgemaster and Talim's grandmother heard that and they walked over. Pointing a threatening finger at Raphael, Edgemaster said, "You must be the bad influence on my student. He used to be such a good boy." The old man glared at Raphael. "When I found out that my student was in jail, I was heavily disappointed. But it seems that it's all your fault for corrupting him... If Kilik walks down the wrong road, I'm blaming it all on you... you evil criminal."

"Wha-What?" spluttered Raphael. "First of all, it was Maxi's fault. Second, if it wasn't for the sake of Amy's world, I would not want to talk to him in the first place! After all, he ruined my plans in SCIII so I'm not lying when I say that we're not buddies! I don't even like the guy!"

Edgemaster crossed his arms and said, "I don't care. You are older than him. You should be a role model for him. I'll say it again for you. IF KILIK WALKS DOWN THE WRONG ROAD, I'M BLAMING YOU."

Talim's grandmother looked at the fencer threateningly as well. "Stay away from my pure granddaughter. I've heard strange things about you. And young man..." The old lday whipped out her white fan and pointed it straight at his face. "You're fired from being Talim's baby sitter! I don't want her to be influenced by such a bad man like you."

"Why thank you," smirked Raphael. "Being evil is quite enjoyable you know. And besides..." He crossed his arms and said, "I hated being her baby-sitter. I do not wish to be near that goody goody two shoes most of the times. She says 'wind' every few seconds. She knocked me out for our destined battle in SCIII. She cries at almost everything and it hurts my ears because her voice is so high! Every time I'm with her, something bad happens. And she's flatter than an ironing board."

A small whimper made the group turned around at Talim whose big brown eyes were shining with tears. Kilik stood beside her with his mouth open and Xianghua and Seong-Mina were there as well. The monk and priestess had arrived at the bus stop and when Xianghua said that the bus was late, the four decided to walk ahead to the next one. Until they encountered this...

"That's... alittle too far," said Xianghua, looking at the poor priestess who was struggling to hold in her tears.

"I... I...I'm flatter than an ironing board! Wahhhh!" Talim ran off crying while Kilik chased after her.

"Talim! Wait up! You're still a very cute girl!" shouted Seong-Mina and Xianghua as they tried to cheer her up. But Talim continued running and soon, she disappeared out of sight with Kilik close behind her.

Edgemaster merely shook his head and began walking away. "Come Kalana. We have to meet Olcadan and Hilde's father for tea."

Talim's grandmother glared at Raphael for a second but then she quickly brightened up and walked away with Edgemaster. "Maybe my granddaughter will now join the other team and not be corrupted by you anymore. Who was that guy... Yun-Seong? I think he would be a very good match for her. I quite like that kid..."And she remembered Talim's SCIII ending where Yun-Seong caught her granddaughter in his arms.

Hearing that, Zasalamel smile evilly at Raphael. "She would be a most welcomed addition to my team..."

Realizing what he had done, Raphael cried, "NOOOOOOO!"

Seong-Mina arched an eyebrow and said, "You're finally feeling guilty for once?"

"Yes! If Talim left my team, my team would lack manpower and my chances of winning would decrease!"

Hearing that, the girls shook their head and Xianghua said, "You're the worst."

* * *

><p>After twenty hours of hard work...<p>

*Subtract twenty points from Zasalamel's team since Astaroth and Ashlotte had to wait for ages until Xianghua and Seong-Mina showed up.

*Each hour is worth two points

Current Amount of Points For Each Team:

1) Raphael's Team- 420 points

2)Zasalamel's Team- 520 points

At Algol's fancy office...

Algol smiled at the readers. "Ah! It's good to see my money- I mean, Darkwings13 readers come back! Welcome! It has been awhile. Darkwings sends her apologies but she has tests at university to deal with and she enjoyed going shopping with her cousin so she forgot to write. But she sent me a souvenir!" Algol held up a coffee cup with his picture on it.

"Father..." Arcturus looked at the him and said, "I was wondering about the match-up for the missions. They seem too... obvious. Did you really draw out the numbers randomly or did you set it up."

Sipping from his coffee cup, Algol leaned back in his chair. "Maybe..."

Sitting on the luxurious white couch, his adopted daughter was watching T.V but when she heard the conversation, Kami giggled. "When I cut the numbers, I turned them into snowflakes on purpose. They were codes/hints for dad."

"Oh..."

Algol sipped some more coffee and turned to the readers. "From Darkwings13, a big thank you to the dear two new readers who favourited this story, Highwayman Myth and Vampuric Spider. You are much too kind and she hopes you enjoyed the story so far. As well, a grateful thank you to ThalieXVII, diegofu, DarkStar56 and again, Vampuric Spider for the great reviews. Because of your motivating words, she'll try to update alittle sooner. This is the Mighty Hero King, Algol, wishing you a nice day and-" But he stopped when his cellphone rang. "Hello? Talim? Uhhh...No?"

Next, Arcturus phone rang and he picked it up. "Have I seen Talim anywhere? Nope."

After that, Kami's phone rang. "Hellloooo? Nope, I didn't order pizza." Turning it off, she shrugged. "Well, let's go a Japanese restaurant and eat some sushi until the next chapter." Glancing at the readers, she waved good-bye.


	29. Preparing for a Wedding Part 2

At a pretty, sparkly, girly and very pink ice cream shop...

The monk had finally found Talim hiding away in an ice cream shop; stuffing herself with strawberry ice cream. After a few hours of talk (and lots of money spent on the frozen desert), he convinced her that Raphael was merely frustrated with being stuck with Zasalamel which was why he said those things. Sure she wasn't... very well endowed but she was still young! Raphael was merely blind to that fact! And the reason she was on this team in the first place was to make sure that the world stays peaceful!

Thinking to herself, Talim agreed that what Kilik said was right. She was here to fight for world peace! Oh, and those free tickets to Soul Land for the orphans! The fire of determination lit up Talim's eyes and she raised her hands in the air as a way to express her new confidence."Yes! You're right Kilik! For the wind and for the world, I must stay strong!" A sudden magical wind flew through the window and it made the place sparkle which in turn, made all of the girls and couples in there stare at them.

"Uh..."Kilik ignored the stares and leaned back in his frilly pink chair that matched the light pink wallpaper. "I'm glad you're back to your old cherry self Talim. And... maybe you'll forgive Raphael? It saddens me when team mates are on bad terms with each other."

Talim sighed and glanced out the window to look at the busy street. "I guess...I did cause him alot of trouble..." All of a sudden, her cellphone vibrated and she picked it up. Reading the text message, she smiled and showed it to Kilik. "Look Kilik! Raphael said he's sorry!"

"That's good to hear!" exclaimed Kilik, standing up to go pay for the ice cream since it looks like Talim didn't need to eat anymore to forget about her depression.

Talim beamed but then she looked at the next text message with wide eyes.

_Talim. I know I may have been rather blunt with my words so I want to make it up to you. Since you're known as the last priestess of the wind, I will do my best to find you a husband when you grow older. I'm assuming that no one wanted to marry you since you're so flat. So don't worry, I'll pay someone to. In return to this bargain, keep doing your best so that I can defeat the devilishly handsome and intelligent Zasalamel._

_-From Raphael Sorel_

Talim chewed on her strawberry worriedly. It was true that she was known as 'The Last Priestess of the Wind'. Did that mean that no one would marry her because she was... flat? More tears streamed from her eyes and they drowned out the fire of determination that barely lasted two minutes. With a wail, she cried, "More ice cream over here please!" Which... Kilik had to pay for of course.

* * *

><p>"Give me back my phone!" snarled Raphael, tackling Zasalamel to the ground to retrieve his stolen cellphone. They crushed the flowers they had been arranging for the wedding and petals were scattered everywhere in the giant dining room as the two fought. Grabbing a bouquet of red roses, Raphael slapped the dark skin man with it and laughed. "Take this baldie!"<p>

"You're going to regret it Sorel!" And Zasalamel grabbed his own bouquet to start a flower fight with Raphael. The two leaped onto the table and began a ridiculous flower fight and petals rained down on to the two men.

When all of their roses fell apart, Raphael teleported behind Zasalamel, and successfully grabbed his cell phone. "Aha!" Turning it on, he looked at his text messages and he gasped. "I never sent Talim that message! And how dare you call yourself devilishly handsome and intelligent!"

Zasalamel grinned victoriously. "It's so over. She'll never want to speak to you again." But then he coughed and spat out some red rose petals.

With a growl, Raphael quickly typed in another apology and prayed to whatever gods or wind that was listening... that Talim will not leave his team. Two seconds, she replied back and he quickly scanned her reply.

_Dear Raphael...Talk to the wind._

_Love, Talim_

Glaring at Zasalamel, Raphael chucked some more dead roses at him. "This isn't over Zasalamel. Now go and buy some more roses! We need to finish the floral arrangement for this stupid wedding that is starting to drive me crazy!"

"Being stuck with you is enough to make me become mentally unstable," retorted Zasalamel as he threw some squished roses at the vampire. This led to a series of immature -duck the roses and throw them back at the other guy- games.

* * *

><p>At the Wolfkrone merry-go-round stage, Rothion was watching his adorable kids; Patroklos and Pyrrha ride on two of the plastic horses. A bunch of other parents stood with him and everyone was having a pretty fun time until...Nightmare, Siegfried and Cassandra showed up.<p>

"Rothion!"

"Hm?" The blacksmith turned around and looked at his sister in-law with surprise. "Cassandra? What are you doing here?"

Cassandra gasped for breath and said, "I need you to make me a pair of wedding rings."

"But I specialize in weapons... not jewelery..."

"Please? It's for a really important wedding," pleaded Cassandra. "We've looked everywhere for a store that would sell a bigger sized ring but we can't find any. AND IT'S STARTING TO DRIVE ME MAD WHEN THOSE TWO WOULDN'T SHUT UP ABOUT HOW MUCH THEY HATE EACH OTHER!"

Nightmare glanced at Siegfried and said, "I hate you."

"I hate you too," replied Siegfried.

And Cassandra gave Rothion a -See! What did I tell you!- look. At that, Rothion arched an eyebrow and then he glanced at Siegfried and Nightmare. "So... who are you marrying? For Cassandra's sake, I hope it's not you." And he pointed to Nightmare.

"Eww... She may be better looking than Tira but she's not my type," said Nightmare, looking as equally horrified as Cassandra.

"Not me! It's for Astaroth and Ashlotte!" Cassandra quickly handed him a piece of paper with the golem and doll ring size. "I know you specialize in weapons but there's no store in this world that sells a ring with Astaroth's size. Please..." begged Cassandra.

Rothion sighed. "Since you're my sister in-law, I suppose so. But you three will need to watch over Patroklos and Pyrrha while I try and make the rings alright?"

Siegfried quickly agreed. "Of course we'll watch over your kids while you help us with this. After all, how hard can it be?"

"Weeeee!" Pyrrha quickly jumped on Nightmare's head while Patroklos jumped on Sigfried's head.

"Ahhhh! Get off me or I'll burn you in darkness!" shouted Nightmare, trying to pull the little girl off him.

"No! No! No! You're-Ouch! My hair!" Siegfried was struggling to pull Patroklos off his head but the kid held on tightly and laughed.

"You the wielder of Soul Calibur in game! I want to use Soul Calibur too! And I want sparkly armour."

Siegfried winced as Pat continued to pull on his hair. "Sorry, but Raphael currently has Soul Calibur. Unless you have that sword, you can't have sparkly armor like mine. Ouch!"

Cassandra winced slightly at the two and pushed Rothion out of there before Siegfried and Nightmare changed their minds about the whole deal. "Umm... can you try and make the rings as fast as possible Rothion?"

* * *

><p>"Where do thou want to go next?" asked Yoshimitsu, opening the door for Ashlotte and Astaroth. He had been assigned the job as their chauffeur and he was also in charged of odd side jobs. Such as delivering lunches to the rest of the cast if they called him or if they needed a small favor. So basically, he was driving around all day.<p>

Getting into the car, Ashlotte said, "We wish to go and observe how the wedding cake group is coming along."

"Right away miss Ashlotte," mumbled Yoshimitsu, checking the side mirrors as he pushed down on the pedal.

After driving for awhile, he stopped at a red light and waited patiently for it to turn green. But then the earth started to vibrate and tremble and he was wondered if there was some kind of earthquake going on. All of a sudden, hideous sound waves hit them and the three clasped their hands over there head. "That is so awful, thee Earth is crying and shaking!" shouted Yoshimitsu. Snapping his fingers, the Manji clan leaped out of nowhere. "Investigate the source of this terrible sound at once before something awful happens!"

* * *

><p>From deep below the ground, the lizardmen choir had reached a crescendo in their music. At this rate, Voldo had stuffed his ears with 101% sound proof earplugs that was working wonderfully well. Which was strange since he ran away for a few hours and bought them at the dollar store. Anyway, the lizard's singing was so bad that it made the Kunpaetku stage tremble and rocks began falling from the ceiling. When a giant boulder fell right beside Voldo, it caught his attention and he hissed worriedly. Looking around, more rocks fell into the lake of green slime. Getting off the piano, he ran over to Aeon and shook him. "Hsshsh! Shshssh shhshs! Hshshsh shshh! (Guys! It looks like this place is going to cave in! We need to get out!)"<p>

Aeon quickly realized that as well and he ordered his kins(in lizard language) to stop and get to the boats. But then, all of the boats sunk as the rocks fell and smashed them. At this rate, all of the lizardmen were running around on the island and they waved their arms around frantically while hissing to each other as they panicked. Trying to keep calm, Voldo pointed to the piano. "Hsss hshshss hsshs! (Let's use that to get out of here)!"

All of the lizards and Aeon clapped him on the back for that ingenious idea. But then they pushed him and stampeded past him and on to the piano. It looks like it was every lizard for themselves...

* * *

><p>"Oh my, Voldo is certainly a very organized cook," exclaimed Sophitia, looking around Team Draw's kitchen. After searching around for a good cake shop, Sophitia had rejected every single one of them and deemed that the gods would strike the stores with lightning for such terrible jobs. Hilde had wondered if the Greek woman was being way too critical but since Sophitia was a baker, the princess merely stayed quiet. After walking around for so long, Tira had snapped and told Sophitia to go to Team Draw's treehouse to use their kitchen and make the stupid cake since she was so picky. After a long argument between the three women(Sophita and Hilde Vs Tira) that involved alot of name calling, swearing (Tira's part) and threats, the three realized that they were wasting time so Sophitia and Hilde headed over to the treehouse while Tira went grocery shopping for the ingredients.<p>

Taking out the measuring cups, measuring spoons, pots, oven gloves and Sophitia put on an apron that said 'Alexandras Rule' and it depicted a cute chibi picture of her holding a basket of bread. On the other side, Hilde put on an apron that said 'Glory to the Krones' and it had a chibi picture of her in her SCIV 2P dress. Needless to say, they bought this at the Soul Land gift shop.

Anyway, Hilde was looking through the cupboards for something and she asked, "Do you know where the recipe books are Sophitia?"

"Aha... you're so cute Hilde," laughed Sophitia, shaking her head as her eyes sparkled with amusement. "As a mother and baker, I know the recipe for a cake by heart. All you need to do is measure out the ingredients when Tira comes back with them." With that, Sophitia put on a magnificent chef hat and she whipped out a giant mixing bowl. The lights above their heads shone brightly down on Sophitia's gleaming gold hair and Hilde's mouth opened in awe and she swore, she could hear a choir of angels singing in the background. This... was the presence of a true culinary master. "I can feel it. This is the aura of someone who can cook..." whispered Hilde, silently worshipping the great cook.

Sophitia smiled and twirled the giant wooden spoon in her hand. "Yes. With my cooking utensils and knowledge, this cake will be made with 100% love, 75% sugar, 10% confidence, 1% fat, and it's taste will be off the chart."

"You sound pretty confident," said Mitsurugi dryly as he and Taki entered the kitchen with their new cameras in their hands. The samurai looked at the kitchen and grumbled, "Make sure you guys clean up afterwards. I hate cleaning up after messes."

Taki was fiddling with the camera and she politely wished Sophitia and Hilde good luck before heading upstairs to find some mechanical tools to customize their cameras. Behind her, Mitsurugi said, "I hope you know what you're doing woman. Theses things cost me a month wages. And you know how pathetic our pay is."

"I really hope that the new game SCV will sell well so that we can get a raise," replied Taki as they walked up the stairs.

Mitsurugi agreed with her. "Yea... because if they don't, you know they'll start cutting out people. As long as I'm in, then I don't really care. But let's say they do cut out some people, who do you think it'll be?

Taki shuddered at the thought of not being in the next Soul Calibur game and she said, "I am quite confident that I'll be in the new game since I am very attractive and the million fans I have acquired should be enough to protect me."

Mitsurugi stroked his chin and said, "If someone did have to get cut...I'd say Talim."

"Really?" Mitsurugi and Taki entered the samurai's Japanese style bedroom full of weapons and body building magazine and they sat down on the wooden floor while Taki whipped out some mechanical tools out of nowhere. Tinkering with the cameras, she said, "Talim is the second youngest character in the roster after Amy. Not to mention, she is quite popular with the fans. What makes you think she'll get cut?"

"Ummm..."Mitsurugi thought about it for a second before saying, "All of the women in SCIV are chosen because they're incredibly good looking and well endowed. Talim may be pretty but she's... the flattest of all the girls."

Taki shot the samurai a cold look. "Amy is just as flat as Talim and you know they're still very young. And if you must know, I'm quite fond of that girl. If she or I get cut from the roster..." The ninja whipped out her Mekki-Maru and a dangerous look sparked in her eyes.

Mitsurugi coughed and reached for his laptop that was sitting on his futon. Turning it on, he showed Taki the million of fan art of her and Amy. "You two are quite popular. And when you compared Amy and Talim together, Amy has a higher chance of being in. Alot of people are in love with that gothic lolita style. Amy is also high tier while Talim is stuck in the low tier group. And you know that with the amount of money Raphael has, he'll bribe the director to keep his daughter in."

Taki looked at the pages and pages of Amy fan art and she had to admit that he had a point. Just then, she noticed something. "Mitsurugi! Turn it off! Turn it off! Turn it off!"

Closing his laptop, he arched an eyebrow at the ninja's outburst. "Why? What did you see?"

"I saw a mature rated romantic picture of Amy and Raphael. Ugh... I need to wash out my eyes now. Messatu!" And the ninja disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"You know the bathroom is like five steps away. You didn't need to teleport," said Mitsurugi as he shook his head.

Teleporting into the washroom, Taki gagged and quickly exited it as Rock and Yun-Seong took turns throwing up in the toilet. "What happened to you two?" asked the ninja, pinching her nose as she looked at the two groaning men from outside the door.

"Ate... too much... food," groaned Yun-Seong, wiping away the sweat from his forehead as he leaned back against the white bath tub.

"I can't... take this anymore..." moaned Rock, holding his stomach in pain. "We were going to settle... with the Italian restaurant... but then..."

"Astaroth and Ashlotte showed up," continued a pale Yun-Seong. "They forced a... list on us...There was two hundred... restaurants they wanted... us to test out. I don't want to do... this anymore... Two hundred restaurants! This is madness!"

Downstairs...

"You maggots haven't started on the cake yet?" growled Astaroth, looking at the empty mixing bowl.

At that insolent tone of voice, Hilde drew out a butcher knife from the drawers and pointed it at the golem. "Don't you dare speak to me like that you vile beast. I had to walk all over town, look through twenty bakeries, walk back here, and get ready to make your stupid cake and yet you have to audacity to call me a maggot and complain that we haven't started on the cake yet!"

"Haugh..." Hwang puked into the kitchen sink and groaned. "That golem... forced me to eat twenty different dishes at... a Mexican restaurant... There's no way... he's going to listen to your... reasoning...Haugh..."

Ashlotte strolled over to the Korean man and quietly observed him. "You are highly intelligent Hwang. By regurgitating your food and eliminating it from your system, you'll now be capable of testing out more dishes."

At that, Hwang raised both hands to the heavens and screamed, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Sophitia quickly rushed over and opened to let the smell of vomit out. Pouring Hwang a glass of water, she sighed and shook her head. This wedding is going to cost the team players alot of frustration, tears, anger, sleep, and their sanity may break sooner or later.

* * *

><p>"Hey... Over here." Wearing dark sunglasses and a shady trench coat, Maxi was standing besides the potato section at a grocery store and hissed at Tira, "Yo, over here!"<p>

Tira was pushing a cart full of groceries and she stopped when she heard him. "Hmm? Who are you? You look kinda funny. Heheeheh." As she went over to him with her cart, she said, "Soooooo? What do you want?"

"I'm selling some magic flour. Want some?" asked Maxi, taking out a giant bag of white flour that he had somehow managed to hide beneath that trench coat of his. People walked back and forth and gave him a weird look but he ignored them. "Today is your lucky day. This bag here will only cost you $5."

Tilting her head, Tira asked, "What's so magical about it? I'm off to buy this kind of flour." And she showed him her shopping list. "That greek woman is really picky about this stuff. So I don't think I should buy your flour."

"But this magical flour I have here can... umm..." Maxi tried to think of a nice lie and he quickly said, "It will make you eternally young, sexy and intelligent! With all three qualities, no man alive would be able to resist you!"

"Really?" gasped Tira, glancing down at the ginormous bag of flour. Forever young and beautiful... that does sound pretty good but... "$5 is too much. Well, I'm off. See you later weird mysterious man who sorta looks familiar to Maxi."

"Wait!" shouted Maxi, running beside her as she wheeled her cart away. "How about $1?"

Tira stopped and pondered about the deal. With a sigh, she took out her purse and said, "Oh. I only have a $5 dollar bill. How does $5 sounds?"

It took alot of self control to stop himself from swearing as he and Tira made the trade. Walking off, he rubbed his hands and laughed evilly. "Muhahaha... I can't wait to see the cake they'll make...It will be... a blast...Aha ahahaha ahahahah hahahahahaha hahahahha!"

"Wahhh!"

Maxi looked over at the baby in the stroller who was crying because of his scary laugh and he mumbled, "Ummm, sorry you had to hear that." He glanced at the open mouth mother and meekly apologized as well.

* * *

><p>"Well... that was pretty easy," remarked Setsuka, feeling absolutely ravishing as she walked down the street with Amy beside her. With their awesome hairstyles, and gorgeous make-up, one had to admit that they got the best job out of everyone. And Setsuka said, "I have to admit, we got the easiest job compared to everyone else."<p>

Amy chuckled slightly and said, "But it would have been considered the worst job ever for some members... Especially Zasalamel and Mitsurugi."

At that, Setsuka started to imagine the look of horror on the samurai's face if he got their job. Beside her, Amy was also imagining it too.

IMAGINATION TIME...

"What the hell is this?" Mitsurugi drew out his katana and held them out threateningly to the make-up artists who were coming towards him. "Real men do not wear make-up or take hours and hours to do their hair! Only weird dandies like Raphael, Maxi and Siegfried would bother with such nonsense."

The hairdressers and make-up artists smiled evilly and held up their curling irons, hair brushes, scissors, lipsticks, eye liners, etc. "Why? Looking pretty will attract you your soul mate."

"What?" The samurai gaped at them. "What? Who the hell says that you need to put on layers and layers of cosmetics to get married? And since when did I care about finding a soul mate? I only care about finding a worthy opponent."

Beside him, Zasalamel drew his scythe and glared at the hairdressers. "Come any closer, and I'll summon my blackhole."

"Uhh...you don't have hair we can pretty up," pointed out one of the hairdresser.

In the background, Raphael, Maxi and Siegfried pointed at Zaslamel and laughed while running a hand through their own gorgeous hair. This of course triggered this reaction from the angry man wielding the scythe. "Disappear into the void."

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"

End of Imagination time...

Shaking their head, they waited by a store downtown for Yoshimitsu to come and pick them up since he was in charge of side jobs. In Amy's hand, she had a small sweet bun that she had been craving the whole day. She was going to eat it but she and Setsuka sat down on a side bench first since hours of walking around had made their legs sore. Before she knew it, some kind of small puppy had popped up beside her, grabbed it, and ran off with it. "Hey!"

Setsuka turned her head but Amy had already ran off to chase after the dog. "Amy!"

* * *

><p>Looking around, a young boy with black hair that had patches of white in it sighed and hollered, "Ein! Come here already!" People walking by him gave him strange glances since he was wearing a ragged dark purple sleeveless jacket, black pants, and strange moon symbols was a huge part of the outfit. Finally, he heard his dog bark and he turned around. "Ein. There you... eh? What's this?"<p>

The white puppy waved its tail and gave a muffled bark. Laughing, Zwei bent down and grabbed the bun. "Well, I guess it is lunch time. Here you go Ein." Giving the part where Ein had bit, Zwei took the other half and they began eating. Until...

"What do you think you're doing?" Amy said coldly, planting her hands on her hips and staring at the tall boy.

Zwei quirked an eyebrow at her and his blue eyes sparkled with amusement. "Eating."

"I can see that. But that's my bun you have there."

Zwei laughed. "Oh? Is your name on it?"

Hearing that, Amy's mouth dropped open. "Wha-What? Your dog stole my bun and now you're speaking to me in that tone of voice? And why are you dressed like that?"

"Heh. At least we match," chuckled Zwei. Taking another bite of the bun, he reached over for her hand and put the remaining piece in her hand. "Well, I'm not hungry anymore. See you later. Let's get going Ein."

And with that, he walked off with his puppy following closely behind him while Amy stared at him with an opened mouth. "He.. He...Hey! Get back here! What is the meaning of this?"

She waved the small piece of bun in her hand and threw it at him; which missed completely as it flew over his head. But she looked at him with surprise when he said, "Hey. Don't do that. Food is valuable you know." He turned around and gave her a bored look. "Judging from your clothes, you must come from a pretty rich family so you wouldn't understand what it feels like to go hungry." Zwei glanced down as his puppy ran ahead to gobble down the thing. With a shake of his head, he stalked off.

Amy quickly noticed how worn his boots were when he walked away and she concluded that he must be living a pretty difficult life. She then remembered her life as an orphan on the street before Raphael took her in and she stared down at the concrete with a sad look on her face.

"Amy? Amy? Ammmmmyyyyy?" Setsuka looked around for the young girl and she bit her lips in worry. Raphael would kill her if she lost his daughter. "Ammmeeeeee? Oh! There you are!" The geisha ran over but she drew back when she noticed that Amy was acting strange. "Hm? Is something wrong? Did you get your bun back?"

"It's... nothing," replied Amy. She crossed her arms and looked at the geisha thoughtfully. "Hey Setsuka, since we're done early, we can do anything we like until the wedding right?"

"I guess... What do you have in mind?"

"It's nothing. I just want to do some things on my own," answered Amy, looking at nothing in particular.

Just then, Yoshimitsu showed up and he honked his horn at them. "Hurry up. I have to pick up Tira from the grocery store and then I have to drive Astaroth and Ashlotte somewhere. So will thou please get into the car already. Namu."

Stepping out of the car, Ivy said a polite thank you to Yoshimitsu as she and Cervantes headed downtown to buy some stuff for their magic show.

* * *

><p>"Xianghua, we're not here to get you a wedding dress." Seong-Mina sighed as Xianghua came out of the dressing room. She had been stuck in this chair for more than enough and she was tired of looking at these dumb white dresses. What's so great about getting married anyway? Maybe if her father wasn't so insistent that she get married, she wouldn't have hate it so.<p>

Twirling in her dress, Xianghua admired herself. "But we should see which dress looks the best on me so that we can have some dresses picked out for Ashlotte to choose when she comes. And since this is a pretty easy mission, why should I take advantage of it so that I can pick out my future wedding dress when I and Kilik get married."

"Ahaha..." Seong-Mina stretched and said, "You've already planned out your wedding?"

"Yep. And I want it to be really special!" Xianghua clapped her hands together and said, "Maybe we'll have an underwater wedding. Oh! Or a wedding in space! Oh, and my wedding dress must be the best ever! Like...this one!" And she pointed to a dress encrusted with diamonds to her right.

"Do you think Kilik can afford it?" Seong-Mina examined the dress and her eyes bulged out at the price tag. Five million dollars! Five whole million dollars! What kind of insanity is this! With that amount of money, someone could buy her dojo!

Xianghua laughed as she stared longingly at the dress. "Of course he can..."

* * *

><p>"I'm out of money," groaned Kilik as he looked at his empty wallet.<p>

Talim hiccough and she giggled. "No... problem. I got it all... hic... covered." She took out a twenty and slammed it on the table. "Hic. Keep the change... Hehehe..."

Kilik looked at Talim with wide eyes and realized that she was...drunk on ice cream? Was that possible? This defied all logic! But the symptoms are all there! The swaying, the glazed looks, the red face and the fact that she was... angrily shouting at someone that strawberry ice cream is better than chocolate ice cream! Oh no! Talim was an... angry drunk!

"So sorry! So sorry!" apologized Kilik as he dragged her out of there before something bad can happen.

"Hic-Oh no! I'm not done hic! The wind will strike down you strawberry haters! Sooner -hic- or later!"

At this moment, Cervantes and Ivy walked past them since the two were heading to the book store to look for a magic trick book. Noticing the monk and priestess, Cervantes said dryly, "Well, what happened to the wind girl?"

"Oh my." Ivy looked at Talim worriedly and then she asked, "Kilik, I expected better from you. Is this how you look after a young girl? What in the world happened to her?"

Kilik merely sighed and explained that Raphael had accidentally said some pretty mean things about Talim and unfortunately, she heard it. After the detailed explanation, Cervantes did the unthinkable. He rubbed more salt onto Talim's already painful wound and he had his troll face on when he did that. "Ahahaha! But it's true that she is flat! Oh! And she's low tier as well! Oh! Oh! And she's-"

But no one ever heard what Cervantes said because Talim shot him a look no one thought she was capable of. The look of pure anger so hot... and so full of fury... that it was hard to believe that Talim's rage didn't contribute to global warming. "WIIIINNNNNNDDDDD!"

* * *

><p>At Algol's office, Algol was reading over some important papers for the T.V show when all of a sudden, he heard something weird and he glanced behind him and a very strange sight met his eyes through the glass window. Cervantes was spinning wildly in the air and now, even though the immortal pirates had some pretty strange powers such as teleportation, he was sure that Cervantes did not have the ability to fly.<p>

Glancing over at the audience, he said dryly, "It looks like the story will have to end here since we're experiencing some technical difficulties. Aka, Cervantes is heading towards my window at a dangerous velocity and I don't think he can control his flying abilities that weren't supposed to exist in the first place. Because I'm supposed to be the only one who does have that ability." And Algol hovered a few inches off the ground to prove his point.

When the immortal pirate hit the window, Algol watched as his mouth opened and closed. Possessing the ability to lip read, Algol eyes widened at what Cervantes said. "Talim... did this... run... run... run!"

"Uh..." Algol looked over at the audience and gulped. "Well, just a few words from Darkwings13 before you guys leave. ThalieXVII, she loves you for all the support and for all the amazing reviews you've given her. To Cjiddy and Ninjaguy446 who are her dear 8wayrun buddies who loves this story, she hopes you'll see this and she appreciates your support on her profile page. To the new reader who favorited this story, Nagoto2000, I hope you'll keep spending your money- I mean I hope you'll keep reading this story."

With a grin Algol waved good-bye. Outside, Cervantes slowly slid down the glass window and dropped out of sight. Looking at the disappearing pirate, Algol shrugged. "I'm sure he'll survive somehow..."


	30. Preparing for a Wedding Part 3

"Shshs! Sshshs! SHSHSSHS!" Voldo was swearing as he and the lizardmen crowded the piano that was bobbing in the green slime lake. Trying to paddle their way across was no easy task since every little movement resulted in a tail in the face or something similar. It didn't help that the rocks above them rained down on them and every once in awhile, a giant boulder crashed down and sent a wave of green liquid over their heads. Thinking this was the end, Aeon commanded his lizard kinsman to sing one last song before they died.

Their hideous wailing screeches made the place tremble even more and it even reached the Lava bed stage (Yoshimitsu's stage from SCIII). People who were in the tour boats screamed as rocks and stalagmites fell down and Chie and Li-long who were there screamed as the boat bobbed up and down as the lava around them rose and fell. The two lovebirds had decided to come to Soul Land for a date and there, Zasalamel forced an invitation to some wedding in their hands.

Anyway, Voldo reached down into the slimy green lake and shuddered. But with no other choice, he paddled like crazy to reach land. And just in time, the manji clan arrived. "Sshss hhshsh! (We're saved)!"

"OMG!" shouted one of the manji samuria. "Those guys were responsible for this destruction."

"As master Yoshimitsu ordered, we must protect the weak and bring justice to these evil doers!" added another manji soldier wearing a fox mask. "And hey! Isn't that the guy who stole our lord's sword in SCII?"

"Yes! It's him!" They all pointed to Voldo who was crying with tears of happiness since he thought they would be saved.

But then they shoved a random boulder over and blocked the exit.

"HHSHS SHSHHSHS HSHSHHS! (WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS)!" Voldo was going to hiss some more but then a giant boulder fell down and a giant wave capsized the piano and he, Aeon and the lizardmen fell into the waters.

Two days later...

The boulder blocking the entrance cracked and it revealed... some very angry lizardmen and a very furious Voldo. "Hshs shshs shshss hhshshs. (We'll complete the mission after we have revenge.)"

* * *

><p>"Drive! Drive!" screamed Yun-Seong as he, Hwang and Rock opened the door of a fancy red car. The idiot who was using it forgot to close the window and he forgot the keys as well. So when the three jumped in, Hwang just had to step on the petal and screech their way out of there. But...<p>

"How dare you steal my car!" screamed Raphael as he ran after them while carrying ten giant bags of stuff in his arms. He just walked into the shopping mall to buy stuff for the gifts bags for the wedding but when he noticed the three getting into his rented car (his batmobile is still being fixed), he lost it. "Get back here you dogs! That's my car!"

Yun-Seong popped his head out the window. "We're really sorry! But Ashlotte and Astaroth keeps forcing food down our throats and... oh it's just you," said the young Korean as he noticed who it was. "Whatever then." And he pulled his head back into the car.

With a pant, Raphael dropped to his knees and shouted, "You'll pay for this! How am I going to carry this stuff back to my castle now?" Setsuka strolled by with her umbrella in a very relaxed manner and the vampire fencer gawked at her for a moment. "Setsuka! What are you doing? Are you goofing off? And where's my Amy?"

The geisha arched an eyebrow at him. "For your information, Amy and I have finished our mission two days ago. Unlike you..."

"Hey! I got more jobs than you people!"

Setsuka shrugged. "Whatever. And Amy said she wanted to hang downtown for alittle while."

"You let my little girl walk around alone? Go and get her before something bad happens!" Raphael got up and groaned at the bags. "Stupid wedding..."

Setsuka pointed to Yoshimitsu car's that was parked a few feet away and then she walked off. "You can ask Yoshi to get you back home while I head back downtown to fetch Amy then."

"If anything happens to my princess, you'll be in alot of trouble!" threatened Raphael.

Setsuka gave him a bored look and waved him off. He was walking over to Yoshimitsu's car but then Ashlotte and Astaroth pushed him to the ground, walked on his fallen body and got into the car. "Hurry up Yoshimitsu! I need to catch those maggots and make them try more dishes!"

"As thou wish," mumbled Yoshimitsu with a bored look. And with that, the car zoomed away.

Lying down, Raphael mumbled into the ground, "I hate weddings..."

* * *

><p>"Ein! Fetch!" Zwei was standing at a the city park where a bunch of other people were having picnics, walking around the small pond and kids were playing on the playground. He threw the small purple ball and watched as his white puppy chased after it. Sitting down against the tree, he leaned back and closed his eyes for a few seconds before a shadow blocked the sunlight. Opening his eyes, he said, "What are you doing here?"<p>

Amy crossed her arms. "This is a public place for recreational activities. Why can't I be here?"

Zwei shrugged. "Suit yourself. But I rarely see any rich girl hang out at places like these."

She sat down beside him and said, "You shouldn't judge a person like that. I used to be an orphan until Raphael Sorel adopted me."

"That was nice of him..." Zwei leaned back once more and stroked Ein's head as the puppy ran up to him. "I only have Ein as my family now."

"What... happened to your family?"

"I don't want to talk about it." Zwei sighed and added, "I'm a ward of the state and let's just say my life isn't doing so great. I'm trying to save up money right now and take care of myself when I turn eighteen in one year."

"Would you like to be chosen to be the next star for Soul Calibur?" blurted out Amy.

He glanced at her suspiciously. "Why are you helping me? I don't even know you."

Amy tugged at her pigtails. "You... remind me of myself. Although I was more quiet when I lived on the street..."

"That's it?"

Amy nodded and when Zwei smiled, she turned her head away and a sneaky smile crossed her lips. No one was going to steal her bun and get away with it. She did feel sorry for him so by getting him this job, he could have a better life. But her other reason was that once he was a character on the roster, then she would have plenty of time to take revenge... Muhahahahaha... This was going to be fun.

Well... it looks like Raphael's personality definitely rubbed off Amy. But anyway, Zwei put a hand on Amy's shoulder and said, "Thank you. I was wrong about you."

Amy shook his hand that he reached out for her. "You're welcome and you can call me Amy. And together, let's become friends" A random lightning bolt flashed across the sky at the charade.

"And you can call me Zwei. My puppy is Ein." He gestured to the puppy who was waving his tail and he blinked up at Amy.

"Ammmyyyy? Oh! There you are." Setsuka walked up to the two and said, "Who's this?" After the introduction, Setsuka shook the young boy's hand before turning to Amy. "Amy. It looks like Talim and Kilik are in trouble. We need to help them."

"What happened to them?" asked Amy.

Setsuka flipped open her pink cellphone and played the message Kilik left. "Setsuka! I called Raphael for help but his phone wasn't working and his call back message said that if someone was involve in a mission and they're in trouble, then call Setsuka because she's slacking off. So I called you. Anyway, me and Talim have flown all the way over to the secret Kunpaetku cult but-" The message was cut off by alot of static noises and screaming. Followed by Talim's high pitch shriek as she screamed, "Pervert! I am a holy priestess!" and it sounded like someone got smacked by Kilik's Kali-Yuga.

Amy sighed. "A rescue mission is in order I suppose.

* * *

><p>After Talim had blown Cervantes up to Algol office, Ivy was so happy about this that she paid for the plane ticket for them to get there and accomplish their mission. To cheer Talim up, Ivy told the priestess that the single life wasn't so bad so even if Talim was the last priestess of the wind because she didn't get married and have children, then she could hang out with Ivy in the future. Knowing that Ivy was trying to cheer her up, Talim brightened up alittle. Especially when the alchemist gave her a gift card worth $1000 to go shopping. Talim did feel alittle guilty about the whole wind thing but Kilik and Ivy and even the wind reassured her that the immortal pirate deserved that so she's back to normal. With Cervantes out and sent to the hospital, Ivy had free time to wander around. She had already read through two magic tricks books so she was just going around shopping for things when suddenly, she bumped into Taki who was also shopping around as well. "Taki? What are you doing here?"<p>

"Shopping." The ninja had two bags of new clothes in her hands and the two headed over to the bustling food court. The smell of delicious food wafted up their noses and they got in line for some sushi. While waiting, Taki casually asked, "So you're saying that since Cervantes is recuperating at the hospital, you can't practice and you're basically taking a break?"

Ivy glanced down as a kid ran past her before turning her attention back to Taki. "Pretty much. But it doesn't matter very much since he's my assistant so I'll just instruct him to do stuff. If it goes well, this will be the last wedding he's going to be attending. Muhahaahahha..." An evil spark lit up the alcehmist's eyes as she rubbed her hands together eagerly. "So, what are you here for anyway?"

"I've imbued a ninja spell on the cameras for it to work by itself," explained Taki. "But there's alittle catch with it. If you remove the little piece of paper on it then it'll only take pictures of ghosts or demons for some weird reason."

Ivy quirked an eyebrow at that. "That's alittle strange... but then again, I guess you probably had a similar spell when you went around hunting demons. So where's the samurai anyway?"

Taki shrugged. "I think he said something about Xianghua calling for his help or something and then he was forced to run over and see what was going on. Hey, have you noticed that guy who's been looking at us?" She casually flicked her eyes over to a guy who was eating a hamburger and he pushed his sunglasses up his nose as he sidled closer to the two women.

The guy was in fact... Maxi and he was still wearing his shady trench coat. Taking another bite out of his unhealthy hamburger, he realized that what he heard was enough and he was about to leave but then a whip lashed onto his ankle. "Hey!"

"Who are you and why were you eavesdropping?" hissed Ivy as she tugged on her whip. People around them realized that something was wrong so they ran away from them. Except for that line of people waiting for the coffee and other food from Tim Hortons. Because when you get in line for Timmies, you never leave until it's your turn. It's a unspoken rule, especially when you've been in line for the past half an hour waiting for a dumb doughnut and coffee.

Anyway, Maxi chucked his burger at Ivy but then Taki whipped out her dual kodachi and sliced it in half. "Don't even try!" She leaped over to him and grabbed his right arm but Maxi twisted out of the grip and kicked her in the stomach.

""Heh, is that it?" Grabbing a plastic board of sandwiches, he dumped it over the ninja's head and then he grabbed a can of root beer. Shaking it, he popped it opened and sprayed the sticky drink all over Ivy and Taki who stumbled backward. And with that, he hightailed it out of there.

Glaring after the running man, Ivy and Taki said to each other, "You take the right side of the mall. I'll take left side and when we find him, we'll make him pay."

One hour later...

"Your punishment will be quite severe." Ivy readied her whip threateningly and then she narrowed her eyes at him. "Especially by the fact that you tried to hide in a lingerie shop!" All the women and girls in there screamed and pointed at Maxi before running out of the way at the battle that was about to ensue. An old woman chucked her cane at him before her daughter-inlaw escorted her out of the shop. Handing over her credit card to the cashier, Ivy said, "I'll pay for all the damage. Now get out of here."

When the shop person left, Ivy smirked and twirled her whip. "Now, are you ready for your punishment?"

Maxi adjusted his sunglasses and said, "I had a weird feeling this would happen... so..." He took something out from his trenchcoat and showed it to Ivy who gasped. "That's right Miss Valentine. I have... your diary!"

"Ho-how?"

Maxi laughed evilly. "I paid Dampierre to break into Raphael's castle to get this. Ahahahah... I actually have all of Raphael's teammates diaries. And if any of you try to stop me, I'll read them to the world."

"I cannot ignore your evil deeds." Taki teleported and stood on a table full of womanly undergarments and glared at him. "I don't know who you are but that is just low. Since you have nothing you can threaten me with, prepare to say your prayers."

"Oh really?" Maxi reached into his pockets but then his face darkened. Shoot. He really didn't have anything. Giving her a nervous laugh, he backed away.

Taki grinned. "Now, let's see who's under that shady trenchcoat, hat and sunglasses."

* * *

><p>On a high mountain somewhere in Greece...<p>

"You're asking the God of War to go to a wedding?" asked Kratos with a dumbfounded expression on his face.

Zasalamel held out the invitation and replied, "I did not fly all the way over here to have tea with you if that's what you're implying." He glanced at dry and rocky platform they were on and thanked the heavens he knew magic or else he would be spending alot of time trying to scale the stupid mountain.

"I do not attend weddings. Now move or die."

Kratos was about to push Zasalamel aside but the man whipped out his scythe and pointed it at Kratos. "Listen here... I am not going to spend another minute in this stupid world that Sorel has created and if I have to suck you into my blackhole, and then make it spit you out in the middle of the wedding ceremony then I will! Now we can take the easy way or the hard way. Take your pick."

With a growl, Kratos drew his Blades of Chaos. "You would defy the God of War! I will kill you mortal!"

Deflecting Kratos's attacks, Zasalamel rolled his eyes. "Good luck with that."

* * *

><p>One day later...at a hidden elf village...<p>

Waling through the thick forest, Raphael groaned and looked at his dumb map. Where was this stupid hidden elf village that Scheherazade lived? At least he heard that Link was staying there for a few days to visit some relatives so that saved him some time on having to use Soul Calibur and warp himself to Hyrule. Brushing away some vines, he looked around at the slightly dark surroundings. The tall trees blocked out most of the sunlight and a creepy carpet of fog rose up around his feet.

Walking around, he suddenly spotted an elf girl with silver hair. "Hey! You there! Do you-" But she had ran off and Raphael chased after her. "Wait! I won't bite!" But then he realized how stupid that sounded since he was a vampire and all so he sighed and continued the pursuit. But then he tripped over something and suddenly, he was yanked up into the air. A thick rope was tied to his ankle and it connected up to a tree. Bobbing up and down, blood rushed to his head and he looked at the elf girl with her bow and arrow pointed it at him. Target practice? No! "Wait! Wait! I'm just here to deliver an invitation!"

"No humans are allowed here," said the tall elf girl with long white hair wearing light silver clothes. Aiming it at him, she fired.

Raphael rolled his eyes and disappeared in a cloud of red mist. Teleporting behind the elf girl, he tried his number two escape trick (his number one trick was the teleportation thing). Sweeping her into his arms, he flashed her a bright smile. "Now now my dear. A pretty face like yours shouldn't be so violent like that. Maybe I can soften you up a bit..."

But then elf girl narrowed her eyes and kneed him in the groin. "I'm married you pervert!" Saying something in elven language, vines from the trees tied him up and she began dragging him across the forest floor to the village so that the elders can punish him.

"Hey! Watch where you're going!" Raphael shouted as his head connected with a few trees when she turned.

* * *

><p>At Raphael's castle...<p>

"Can we watch Beauty and the Beast again?" asked little Pyrrha, jumping up and down on the puffy sofa in the living room. Nightmare didn't pay much attention and he nodded while he was trying to solve a crossword puzzle. What in the world was taking that blacksmith so long to make a pair of wedding rings? He had better things to do then be a baby-sitter. But then Pyrrha changed her mind about the movie and she pulled on Nightmare's arm instead. "Hey! Let's have a tea party Nighty! Please?"

"No. And don't call me Nighty."

Pyrrha pouted. "Why? Tira calls you Nighty."

Nightmare put down his papers and growled, "And I don't like it. Now just shut up and watch your movie kid."

Tears formed in Pyrrha's big blue eyes and she wailed, "Auntie! Nighty is being mean to me!"

Rushing out of the kitchen, Cassandra swopped down and hit Nightmare's head with a frying pan. "You dolt! How dare you make my niece cry!" Before he could say something along the lines of "Burn in darkness or drown in darkness or I'll devour your soul." Cassandra knocked him out with another hit from her frying pan. Picking up Pyrrha, she said, "Hey sweetie, how about we watch that other movie, Tangled instead?" She left her frying pan behind her on the couch as she tried to get Pyrrha to cheer up by getting her some ice cream from the kitchen.

When Cassandra left the living room, Siegfried ran over and shook Nightmare. "Nightmare! Wake up! This is urgent!" When he didn't wake up, Siegfried ran away and grabbed a bucket of cold water and dumped it on him.

"AUGH!" Nightmare was totally soaked and he glared at Siegfried. "I'm going to kill you."

"Cassandra's going to kill me if I don't find Patroklos!" hissed the crystal knight. "We were playing hide and seek but I think he's hiding somewhere in Soul Land instead of Raphael's castle."

Hearing that, Nightmare grinned evilly. "Why should I help you? In fact, I should tattle tale on you. Ooooohhhh Cassandrraaaa. Ow!"

Siegfried knocked out the Azure knight with the frying pan and rolled his eyes. "Why did I even bother asking?"

* * *

><p>"Excuse me! You called me here to look at wedding dresses!"<p>

Mitsurugi was about to storm out out of there but then Seong-Mina dragged him back with a deranged look in her eyes. "I can't take this anymore!" hissed the Korean girl. "I've spent enough time in this place to warrant a health notice. Look at my eyes!" Her eyes did seem strangely red and the right one twitched slightly.

"Have you picked out more dresses for me to try?" asked Ashlotte as she walked out of the changing room. In the chair, Xianghua looked at Ashlotte with glazed eyes and pointed dumbly to a huge pile of dresses on the chair beside her. After four days of no sleep, things were spiralling downward. When Ashlotte walked into the huge changing room with one of the service lady, Xianghua slid down the chair and napped on the floor. When Ashlotte wasn't here to try the dresses, she made Xianghua and Seong-Mina looked at a mountain of wedding magazines to study the dresses so there wasn't any time to sleep. To make sure they studied, the doll gave them daily quizzes and if they failed... they shuddered to know what the consequences were.

Seong-Mina clasped her hands together and said, "Just compliment Ashlotte a few times. I really really really need to go and buy some coffee for me and Xianghua. I would ditch but did you hear about what happened to Hwang, Yun-Seong and Rock?"

Mitsurugi gulped and he pitied those guys. It seems that Astaroth managed to catch up to them and then he tied them into chairs to force them to try more dishes. Things got desperate so Yun-Seong jumped out of the window while he was still tied to his chair and was now in the hospital. Having free time, he went to visit the kid (and Cervantes) even though their countries was at war and he heard the whole thing...

* * *

><p>The escape...<p>

"I can't do this! I'm sorry guys, but this is it!" shouted Yun-Seong as he threw himself (and the chair he was tied to)out the window and out of the restaurant.

"No! Take me with you!" shouted Hwang and Rock as they struggled out of their chairs.

Astaroth stepped into the room with three plates of differently cooked lobsters. "Eat some more maggots!"

"Noooooooooooo!"

* * *

><p>Turning back at Seong-Mina, he sighed. "Fine. But make it quick."<p>

Sitting down in the chair, he crossed his arms until Ashlotte walked out. "What is you opinion on this Heishiro Mitsurugi?"

"Uhhh... you look very nice in it?"

Ashlotte narrowed her eyes slightly. "Where was this dress made? What type of dress is this? How much would you estimate this dress would cost? When was the design of this dress made? Who designed it? What type of veil would go well with this?"

Bombarded by more questions he couldn't answer, Mitsurugi just sat there in silence. Finally, Ashlotte sighed and pointed to the corner where five piles of magazines were sitting. "Read those and study them. I expect some answers next time Heishiro Mitsurugi."

* * *

><p>Dragging another bag of sugar up the treehouse, Yoshimitsu panted as he took it into the kitchen. "Are thou trying to make the guests at the wedding have diabetes?"<p>

Sophitia was furiously stirring some stuff in her mixing bowl while Hilde was preparing the icing. Wiping her face, she left a trail of yellow icing on her cheeks and sighed before turning to Yoshimitsu. "This cake is going to be huge." They glanced over at the three layered cake that was the size of the dining table.. which was on the dining table. They still needed to make seven more layers until they started on the decorations for it and Sophitia sighed.

Staring at the working oven, Tira pouted. "This will be done in ten minutes!"

Sophitia reached for a cup of water as she added some more sugar and cinnamon to her mixing bowl. Taking a quick drink, she sighed. "My arms hurt. Yoshimitsu, can you stir this for a moment? I need to crack more eggs."

"Sure." Yoshimitsu stirred for a bit and then he picked up his cellphone when it rang. "Yoshimitsu here."

"RUN FOR IT BOSS! RUN! THE LIZARDS ARE EVERYWHERE! EVERYWHERE! AHHHHHH!"

Yoshimitsu looked at his phone with confusion. "Uh..." Glancing up at the kitchen window, he nearly suffered a heart attack. Voldo was glaring at him and he was clinging to the window like Spiderman.

"What the?" Hilde stopped making the icing and her eyes widened. "What's going on?"

With a hiss, Voldo leaped through and glass flew everywhere. A few shards of it went into the cake mix but no one noticed because a team of lizards had rushed into the kitchen to destroy Yoshimitsu who was the leader of the Manji clan. A few seconds later, the Manji clan showed up to defend their boss and the tree house was in total chaos. From other side of the room, Hilde, Sophitia and Tira had grabbed their weapons to defend the cake they had made so far and everytime someone came near, Sophitia whacked the guy with her rolling pin. "Please keep your hands-" She ducked under a lizard's tail and hit the lizard in the face. " and your tails away from the cake!"

"Wanna die?" snarled gloomy Tira as she kicked away a manji clan person.

The guy immediately gasped. "You killed one of our comrades in SCIII! You must die!"

Tira rolled her eyes. "Irritating. Now get out of my way!" With three quick slices, all of his clothes fell to the ground and the guy screamed since he was standing in the midst of a battle in his boxers.

"For the glory of the Krones- I mean for the glory of Raphael's team, I cannot lose!" Hilde twirled her lance and knocked three lizards and two manji samurai out the window. Turning to Yoshimitsu and Voldo who were engaged in a fierce duel to the death, she shouted, "Yoshimitsu! What in the world did you do?"

"How would I know?" retorted Yoshimitsu as he ducked a flying plate and a canister of soup.

Voldo hissed, "Hshs shshshs shshshhsh shshsh shhh hhshsh (Your people blocked the exit with a boulder and I was stuck in a lake of slime and gross water for two days)!"

"What? But I didn't-"

"Shshshs hshs (No excuses)!" And Voldo grabbed two kitchen beaters and turned them on at a dangerous speed.

From a distance, Sophitia gasped. "Those would really help with my mixing!"

"Concentrate Sophitia!" Hilde slammed her shoulder into a lizard and the three continued defending their cake.

* * *

><p>In a dark and scary prison, Talim and Kilik were both meditating to control the panic they were both feeling. Beside them, the two old priests were trying napping against the cold stone wall as they waited for help to arrive. You see... what happened two days ago was...<p>

"What's the password?"

Kilik glanced up at the tall gothic security guard who was guarding the entrance to the underground Kunpaetku cult. A unnatural green light from some rocks lit up the narrow pathway and he glanced at the snake symbols on the iron doors. Darn it... Those two priests were in there but Ashlotte didn't tell him that about any passwords. Glancing behind him at the frightened priestess, he asked, "Talim. Are you alright?"

"Kilik, I'm scared," whimpered Talim as she hid behind the monk's back. The security guard's muscles were bigger than her head and those knives and skulls tattoo scared her.

Kilik wasn't feeling very good about this whole thing as well and he wondered what on earth happened to the two priests who made Ashlotte. Puffing up his chest so that Talim, who he considered to be a younger sister, would feel alittle more protected, he stammered, "W-we a-are se-sent by Ash-ashlotte t-to come and sp-speak with the tw-two priests."

"No password, no entry. So scram."

Kilik glanced back and forth nervously before a lightbulb flickered on in his brain. Dragging Talim back, he said, "Let's just keep calm and think about a different way to approach this." They glanced over as two tall guys with spiked hair that's red and blue, piercings, tattoos and leather outfits walked up to the security guard, whispered something and were immediately let in. "What is this place? An underground night club or something?" whispered Kilik as heavy metal music blasted out and they saw more shady people dancing in there. As they say... this was the wrong side of the street to walk. With a sigh, Kilik whispered a plan into her ear.

Two hours later...

"How do I look?" Kilik had dyed some red highlights into his hair and he offered some to Talim but since her hair was already green, it looked fine enough to blend in. Donning tight black leather pants and an opened vest, Kilik had also put on a fake dragon tattoo on his chest and a fake earring on his right ear. Talim wore some small leather shorts and she had turned her normal vest and small white top black. Untying her ponytails, her hair fell to the middle of her back. Next, they put on thick eyeliner and Talim eyed the black nail polish and lipstick with dislike. "If my grandmother ever sees this..." Next, they bribed some biker guy for the password and after that, they calmly walked up to the guard, and were immediately let in as they gave the password.

Heavy metal music blasted their eardrum and stage smoke obscured their vision. Coughing, Talim stumbled back as a guy held out a bag of pills. "Hey little lady. Want some?"

Backing away from the bad guy, they stumbled away. Disco lights flooded the dance floor and to the right was a bar and to the left was a bunch of tables and chairs. Kilik whispered, "You know, I was expecting robes and magic stuff since this was supposed to be a cult. Not a hangout for delinquents and other criminal minded people."

"I want to get out of here," whimpered Talim. But...then she would drag the rest of her team down.. So she steeled herself and said, "You search and ask those people over there Kilik." Kilik looked over to a group of bikers who were laughing and smoking and his eyes widened. Before he could object, Talim had rushed off somewhere. Looking around, she bit her lips worriedly and bumped into a tall thin man with a goatee. "Ooops! I'm sorry!" But then her eyes widened. "Kunpaetku! You're alive! I thought Maxi killed you!"

"You..." But then the tall priest laughed. "Ah, Talim. The priestess of the wind village. What are you doing here and why do you look so... pretty tonight?"

She backed away nervously as he glanced at her small black short. "I'm here to look for the two priests who made Ashlotte so that they can come and perform the wedding ceremony." She shuddered when he put his arms around her shoulders. "Ummm, please let me go." Inside her mind and with her powers, she could hear the wind scream, "Pedo bear! Pedo bear! Pedo bear! Get away from him quickly! Sock him in the family jewels!"

He ran a hand through his greasy hair. "I've been looking forward to meet you for so long. Tell me about those wind powers of yours will you?"

"That's my village secrets." Talim pushed him away and said, "What happened to this place anyway?"

Kunapaetku grinned. "Well, with this new world I can't really stay with the old traditions and rituals so I've moved on. At least until Zasalamel change this world back to normal. You know, I'm making quite a bit of money my dear. Is there anything you want? A drink or something? I can pay for it."

"She's a minor," said Kilik gruffly as he stood in front of Talim with his Kali-Yuga. "And as her friend and sort of older brother, I should warn you to keep it civil."

"But this is a place for guilty pleasures," replied Kunpaetku smoothly. Snapping his fingers, two giants with more piercings and muscles grabbed Kilik in a tight grip. "Ha. I own this place and I can do whatever I want. Now my pretty girl..."

Talim screamed as he pulled her towards her and without thinking, she blasted him backwards with a blast of wind. "Wind! Kilik! Let's get out of here!"

"Don't let them escape! I'll pay the person who captures them a thousand dollars!" shouted the high priest.

Chaos ensued as Kilik knocked people away with his Kali-Yuga while Talim flipped and leaped around and to avoid being captured. Taking out his cellphone, he immediately called Raphael. But the fencer didn't pick up since he was busy or something. His voice message said, "You've reached Raphael Sorel, the devastatingly handsome and rich Frenchman of Soul Calibur. I'm currently busy but if you're my teammate who's in trouble, call Setsuka since she's slacking off. Au revoir." Kilik swung his staff at another person and dialed with one hand while Talim kicked someone and sent the person flying into the bar with another blast of wind powers. "Setsuka! I called Raphael for help but his phone wasn't working and his call back message said that if someone was involve in a mission and they're in trouble, then call Setsuka because she's slacking off. So I called you. Anyway, me and Talim have flown all the way over to the secret Kunpaetku cult but-" his phone was knocked out of his hand and five tough guys tackled him to the floor.

To the right, Talim screamed as the Kunpaetku grabbed her. "I've always wanted to date a young priestess... and you're quite pretty little girl."

"Pervert! I am a holy priestess!" Talim struggled against him and then she heard the wind say, "Hit pedo bear down there Talim!". With that, she kicked him in the groin and blasted the people on Kilik off. The battle didn't last much longer until both were caught and thrown into prison. Kilik had quickly lied that the wind would strike down Kunpaetku if he tried anything with Talim. So until the priest could find a way to disable her powers, she was untouchable. When they were thrown into the prison with the two old priests, they found out that Kunpaetku had taken over everything and threw the two old men into the prison to secure his power base.

Back to the present...

"Wind... guide me," murmured Talim. "Don't let pedo bear touch me...Please give him some weird skin disease that will itch like crazy and-" But she thought it was too harsh so she added. "Let the disease be curable oh great wind..."

"Dvapara-Yuga... show me the way," prayed Kilik. "And please let me see my Xianghua again if I'm going to die."

"You guys know that we're here to save you right?" said Amy as she, Zwei and Setsuka stepped through the dungeon. The guards had been knocked out and the monk and priestess cried out in relief as they were rescued by their friends. But then the security system rang and Setsuka said, "I believe we should get out of here quickly."

* * *

><p>Algol's Office<p>

Algol was typing up some stuff on his computer when he finally, he noticed the audience. "Ah! It's good to see all of you gentleman and beautiful ladies back. Well, it seems there's been a few questions on the previous chapter on how Talim got drunk on ice cream." He clasped his hands together and said, " If you've seen a Spongebob movie, one of them had Patrick (the cute pink starfish) and Spongebob (the yellow square sponge) drunk from ice cream while singing some kind of song. So yes, it is 100% possible to get drunk on ice cream." But then Algol winked mischievously.

"Anyway, sorry for the long update but it might be even longer until Darkwings13 updates since she has things to do. Like math or something." Algol shrugged and sipped some coffee. "It saddens me because my paycheck will now be delayed. I mean... it's terrible for you readers to have to wait so long." The Hero King laughed before turning away and wiping his forehead. Whew. Sitting up straight, he smiled and said, "To the new reader, mardeoo who favourited this story, thank you very much for your money- I mean your time. To ThalieXVII and Sigpig, thanks for the kind reviews. Darkwings13 is always happy to hear from her readers." Looking around, Algol whispered, "And if she's happy then I get a very happy paycheck so thanks. Anyway, come back next time for another insane chapter of fights, accidents and injuries of Calibur World. Farewell!"


	31. Preparing for a Wedding Part 4

"Thanks for helping out Dampierre," laughed Maxi as he handed over a wad of cash.

Dampierre counted the money and grinned. "Le Bello is happy to be of use. If you need anything, feel free to call me."

Maxi laughed once more as they exited the lingerie shop. In there Ivy and Taki was tied back to back by some very expensive black lingerie that was surprisingly quite strong since they were unable to break out of the fabric. For good measure, he taped their mouths shut.

Taki growled "Mpmh mai humph mhhhmph!"

Ivy hissed something similar but the sea dandy just ran a hand through his hair and flashed them a smile. "Messing with me is just... stupid. See you later ladies."

Taki and Ivy snarled. Getting up with great difficulty, they hopped over to him. "Mppmph mmhph mmhhhph!"

But Maxi and Dampierre weren't afraid at all and they grinned while the people shopping around stared. "Le Bello calculates that they'll catch you in about... a million years Maxi."

"Mpmpmpmhh!" Being tied back to back made things alittle difficult for the alchemist and ninja but they hopped even faster to teach Maxi and Dampierre a lesson. Unfortunately, they toppled over and Taki broke her nose when she landed face first into the ground. "Mpppmpmpmpmhhhhh!" Rolling back and forth like an upturned turtle, the two struggled to get up while Maxi burst out laughing and jogged away.

"Nothing personal ladies, but I can't let this wedding succeed. I'm going to make sure Astaroth stays single for the rest of his life even if it kills me. Muhahahahahhaha!"

* * *

><p>Yun-Seong sipped some tea and adjusted the pillow behind his head as he watched T.V. The hospital room he was in was very nice and he had to admit that the nurses here were quite attentive to his needs once they recognized him as one of the cast of Soul Calibur. "It certainly helps to be famous," thought Yun-Seong as he breathed in the scent of fresh roses that Zasalamel had just sent him. Pulling the nice blue blanket up to his chest, he reached for the card. It said...<p>

Dear Yun-Seong

Raphael Sorel bought too many roses for the floral arrangement so I decided to send some your way when I heard you were hospitalized. The idiot was initially going to throw them away because that's how wasteful he is. And even though we ruined more then half the roses by whacking each other with them, I still had alot left so I sent most of these to everyone on our team. Anyway, I just wanted to say... hurry up and recover so that you can help with the wedding plans!

From Zasalamel

Yun-Seong shrugged and put the card back on his bedside table. Breathing in the fresh air coming from his opened window, he leaned back against the pillows and started watching Scurvy Shores (Cervantes recommended it to him). He had only been watching for half an hour when suddenly, one of the nurses knocked on him door and opened it. "Yun-Seong, you have two visitors today."

"Oh? Who is it?"

The pretty nurse smiled and opened the door. When he saw who it was, his mouth opened in shock, his eyes widened like saucers and he spilled his tea all over himself. "What happened to you guys!"

Hwang glanced away and muttered, "Yea... We're going to be going on a strict diet for awhile. Thanks for bailing out on us Yun-Seong."

Rock sobbed, "My beautiful muscles! Forgive me Bangoo! I always taught you to keep your body in good shape but now I'm fat! Ahhhhh!"

"Sshhhh!" shushed the nurse. "Other patients are sleeping. Keep it down." With that, she gestured for them to go inside.

Unfortunately, they were so overweight that they were having a difficult time doing that. Yun-Seong watched as the two wobbled over and tried to push themselves through the door. They looked like they weighed about five hundred pounds and he could only describe them as a 'human' ball. Rock emphasized that when he lost his balance and rolled down the hallway. "Ahhh!"

At this time, Cervantes walked out of his room on his crutches and when he saw Rock rolling towards him, he gasped. "What in the name of the Adrian is going on!" And he tried to hobble away on his broken leg but unfortunately, Rock rolled over him and Cervantes other leg broke under the weight of Rock's body.

"Sorry Cervantes!" cried Rock as he rolled away.

On the other hand, Yun-Seong and the nurse was trying to unjam Hwang from the doorway. The younger Korean panted, "Hwang! How in the world will you fit into your dress suit for the wedding?"

"Tell Raphael and Zasalamel to make some adjustment on my outfit then!" said Hwang as he tried to wiggle free of the doorway.

* * *

><p>At the hidden village of the elves...<p>

Raphael shook his head as an elf untied the piece of cloth around his eyes. "Hey! Where am I?"

The old elf elder pointed a staff at him and said, "You're at the the village square human."

Raphael looked around at the crowd of elves gathered around him. A few of them dangled their legs from the trees they were sitting on and laughed while the elder ordered them to be silent. Tall trees were planted around the village and from what Raphael could see, the small shops and homes were all made of wood and flowers bloomed everywhere. A random bird flew over and it nestled amongst his hair. It chirped cheerfully and wiggled in the blonde locks. "Hey! Get off my head you stupid bird!"

The elder poked him and said, "All the animals and plants of mother nature are beautiful. Respect them young one."

Raphael rolled his eyes and pulled at the vines tying his hands and feet together. "Look here. I hate nature and mother nature hates me. I don't like skipping around fields of flowers or bird gazing. A man such as me is only comfortable rolling around in piles of money and returning to a luxurious castle with lots and lots of servants."

"Then why are you here?" asked a curious elf girl with pink hair.

Raphael sighed. "Where's Scheherazade and Link? I need to give them a wedding invitation."

"Heeyah ya? Hiya? (Is that who I think it is? Raphael?)" Link stepped forward and beside him, Scheherazade arched an eyebrow at the captured vampire. "Ya heaya yea ha? (What are you doing here?)"

"Can someone translate for me?" asked Raphael, unable to comprehend anything that Link's saying.

Scheherazade translated and said, "So you're inviting me and my cousin who's currently visiting... to go to Astaroth and Ashlotte's wedding?" When Raphael nodded, she thought about it carefully. "Hmm... alright. That sounds good." Whipping out her rapier, she cut the vines off Raphael.

"Scheherazade! You're not allowed to leave the village!" protested one of the elf. "Do you want to be locked up in prison again for another hundred years."

"Shut up!" Scheherazade glared at them and said, "I've decided to leave this boring village forever! Instead, I'll travel the world and see all the cool stories that are unfolding around there.

The elder sighed. Unlike the quiet and good nature elves, Scheherazade was always outgoing, curious, and stubborn. Her love for stories made her a great story teller but it also made her hate the slow and slightly dull life of the village. Such a difficult child... However, rules were rules so the elder snapped his finger. "Capture them and throw them in prison."

"Wait! How long will we be stuck in there?" Raphael asked.

"One hundred years."

"One hundred years! Forget it!" And Raphael drew his Flambert. Beside him, Link and Scheherazade were already in their battle stance.

Link said to his cousin, "Hiya ya seeya ya (I'll be here to support you cousin)." Scheherazade grinned and said thanks as Link adjusted his shield.

Pointing her sword up, she shouted, "Alright! Let's get this show on the road."

Raphael twirled his rapier and grinned slowly as the bird on top of his head chirped. "Come worthless dogs. Let's see-" But he stopped when he saw Link and Scheherazade make a break for the village's gate. "Hey! What are you doing!"

"Hiya yi sheza ya heya hiyaaa! (Only an idiot would stay back and fight a losing battle)!" shouted Link as he sidestepped some arrows.

"What is he saying!" cried Raphael.

"He says runs for it before you get shot in the butt!" retorted Scheherazade as she ducked a few arrows herself.

As Raphael ran for it, the elf girl with the silver hair grinned and aimed her arrow at him. Releasing it with a loud twang, she laughed when she got his left buttock.

"Auuuuuuuuugggggghhhhh! You vile dogs! I'll get you for this!" screamed Raphael as he glanced back and looked at the projectile stuck in his left gluteus maximus.

"Quit crying! Just dab it with some disinfectant and put a bandage on it loser," shouted Scheherazade as they ran away from the angry mob of elves.

* * *

><p>"What's wrong with her?" asked Seong-Mina as she, Ashlotte and Mitsurugi stared at Xianghua who was just sitting there and staring into space. A few of the employees at the wedding dress shop glanced over worriedly as Seong-Mina waved her hand in front of Xianghua's face. "She's not even blinking."<p>

Ashlotte said, "That is not good. There's only two more days before the wedding starts. She is required to give me a satisfactory answer about this dress that I've chosen." They stared at Xianghua some more before Ashlotte picked up her hand and checked her pulse. "I see. Xianghua is merely sleeping."

"With her eyes opened!" exclaimed Seong-Mina. The Korean girl hesitantly poked Xianghua on the shoulder and they watched as the Chinese girl slid to the ground with a thump and slept on.

"It seems so. Well then..." Ashlotte glanced over at the samurai who met her gaze without flinching. "Heishiro Mitsurugi. Tell me, what do you think about this dress? I hope you have been studying."

Mitsurugi crossed his arms and looked at the dress with a critical eye. " The fabric seems to be organza; sheer smooth silk that's slightly transparent. You've chosen a chapel train that's between sixty to seventy centimetres to emphasize the little design on it. The sweetheart neckline is elegant and the corset has emphasized your chest by reducing the size of your waist by ten centimetres and I've read that a simple silver necklace with a gem such as a sapphire will be a nice touch. The little pearl beads on the front costs about a hundred dollar each since they've been retrieved from some very old clams that live deep in the Pacific Ocean. The angular side ruffles that sweeps from your waist to the floor is well cut and the lace is hand made all the way from Britain. This dress costs about two thousand dollars but you have some crystals on the back so it should be an extra five hundred dollar."

"Well done Heishiro Mitsurugi," complimented Ashlotte as everyone in the shop clapped their hands.

Seong-Mina just gaped at the samurai. "Bu-But how?"

Mitsurugi shrugged. "It was nothing. A man as talented, skilled, and strong as me will not let something stupid like the lack of knowledge on wedding dress stain his reputation. I am number one in everything and this knowledge will be useful in the future."

"How in the world will it be useful in the future?" asked Seong-Mina.

The samurai shrugged once more. "Maybe a man will challenge me while wearing a wedding dress and I'll know that he can't move a certain way since the dress is restricting him."

The Korean girl blinked a few times before answering. "It would make more sense if you said it was Setsuka who's wearing a wedding dress and for some random reason, she wore that to kill you."

"You're right," said Mitsurugi as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I will now study the kimono! Wait... what in the world am I saying?" He looked at all the women staring at him and gasped. "I've been infected by your female presence! Ahhh! I only seek a worthy and manly opponent to fight! Why in the world am I studying dresses! What is happening to me!" And he ran out of the shop to go to a gym.

At a random gym...

Everyone looked up as a samurai crashed through the door and held up his katana. "Anyone who's strong! Come forth and challenge me! And... prepare to fight to the death."

All the people who were working out paled as the light sparkled off his sword. "Hey man... is that thing real?"

Mitsurugi scoffed. "Of course it's real. I've killed over-"

"Oh my god! It's Mitsurugi!" screamed someone who recognized the samurai from Soul Calibur. "He's never been defeated and every time he joins a side for a war, that side always wins."

"Why thank you," said a flattered Mitsurugi. Before he could continue, all the people in there screamed and they ran away from him. "Hey! Come back here! You cowards!"

* * *

><p>One day later...<p>

"Run Nightmare! Run! Go go go go!" shouted Siegfried, waving his badminton racket around like crazy.

Things seemed to move in slow motion as Nightmare charged towards the falling birdie. On the other side, Pyrrha and Patroklos were jumping up and down in joy as the Azure Knight swiped at it... and missed.

"Yay! Pat, we won again!" cheered little Pyrrha, dancing around and waving her badminton racket.

The people at the badminton court went, "Ahhhhh, she's so cute."

Grinning at the sweating knights, Patroklos said, "So this is the best you two grown ups can do? Lame."

"I'll burn you in darkness!" shouted Nightmare as he tried to run over there and strangle the young Greek kid.

But Siegfried held him back and said, "Calm down! Cassandra's going to pick up the rings and she'll be back here before you know it! Just entertain them alittle longer!" Siegfried pointed to Soul Edge that's resting against the gym wall and said, "Look! Even your sword is rolling its eyes at your behaviour." They turned to see Soul Edge roll it's gross yellow eye at how badly the two were losing against the two kids.

"Fine," snapped Nightmare. Readying his racket, he shouted to Patroklos, "Hurry up and serve already!"

"This is... justice!" Serving the birdie, they watched as it rocketed towards Nightmare's face. Nightmare panicked and without thinking, he grabbed Siegfried and used him as a human shield.

"Ahhh! My eye!" Siegfried stumbled backward and clutched his blackened eye. "Nightmare! You idiot!"

Pyrrha gasped and ran towards the crystal knight. "Mister Siggy! Are you alright?"

Giving the girl a forced smile, Siegfried replied, "Don't worry, this is nothing. And please don't call me Siggy."

"But Tira calls you Siggy," pointed out Pyrrha.

He sighed and merely told her to go back to her side. Patroklos served again and Nightmare quickly slapped it back towards the kids. This went back and forth until Patroklos let out a sly grin and hit it really gently so it landed exactly on the net. Everyone watched as it hung there precariously until Pyrrha ran up to it and blew on it. Nightmare clutched his helmet and dropped to his feet as the birdie landed on his side. "Noooooooooo!"

Siegfried groaned and shook his head. "No need for words... we stink at this game."

* * *

><p>One hour later...<p>

Covered in sweat, Siegfried stood there as the birdie sailed past his face. Nightmare hissed angrily, "You wretched human! Why didn't you hit it?"

"Can't... feel... arms..." moaned the knight. He toppled over and everyone at the badminton ran over and crowded around him.

"Give him some air!" commanded one of the gym instructors as he helped Siegfried sit up.

Pyrrha was crying as she looked down at the knight. "Oh no! Siggy died."

Nightmare gave the girl a pat on the head. "Believe me... I really wish it was so."

Patroklos had a grumpy expression on his face. "Darn! What are we going to do now?" The Azure Knight quickly suggested that they go for ice cream but Patroklos realized that the dude only wanted to get away from this exhausting game. Patroklos smiled evilly and shook his head. "Oh no. I was just getting warm up. Here, we'll make it two vs one."

"What?" Nightmare was about to protest until Patroklos called him a chicken.

"You can't even beat two little kids! The only nightmare I'm getting is you flooding this world with your tears when you lose!"

"That... is it!" Nightmare threw away the badminton racket he was using (and it unintentionally hit Siegfried) and he walked over to his sword and raised it up. "Soul Edge! Give me the power of darkness!" In an instant, the sword transformed into an evil Soul Edge badminton racket. Walking over to his side of the court, he kicked Siegfried's body out of the way and readied his badminton stance. Pointing his new racket at Patroklos, Nightmare grinned. "Prepare to meet your worst nightmare."

Pyrrha looked at her brother worriedly. "Pat... are we going to be alright?"

"Of-of course," reassured her brother. "Just because his racket is good, doesn't mean the player is good. Let's do this Pyrrha!"

"Ok!"

But within ten minutes, Patroklos realized that they were fighting a losing battle as Nightmare zoomed around the court like a speed demon. His hits were brutal and Patroklos had to roll out of the way as the birdie zoomed down and made a small crater into the sparkling gym floor.

"Muhahaha ahahahah ahahahah! Yes! I'm feeling the power Soul Edge! It feels like I've devoured some very good souls!" Nightmare crowed happily. The eye on the racket rolled its eyes at Nightmare's childish behaviour. Readying the racket, he swerved it right at Pyrrha who screamed and stumbled backward since the projectile was actually on fire from Nightmare's power. "Muhahahah! I'm winning! I'm winning!"

Patroklos shouted, "It's not over yet! We're still ahead of you from the first half of the game!"

Nightmare laughed. "Let's see what you can do now that I have the ultimate racket!" He raised his Soul Edge racket up and said, "I am invincible!"

One hour later...

Nightmare looked at Patroklos who was gasping for breath and then he glanced at Pyrrha who was crying like a baby. "Ahh... how your tears and suffering does soothe me." He chuckled when Patroklos shot him a death glare. "Accept defeat little boy."

"Never!"

Nightmare teased the kids by saying, "You play like a mewling child. Oh I forgot! You're just a bunch of pesky little kids. You should play with kids your own age before you make the grown ups mad. After all, I'm a billion years old you foolish mortals."

More tears rained down Pyrrha cheeks. "I... I want my mommy! Mommy! Wahhhhh!"

Before Nightmare could call Pyrrha a crybaby, a thunderous voice echoed through the badminton court and everyone turned to look. "NIGHTMARE!"

Turning around, he flinched as he saw Cassandra. "Ummmm... she tripped?"

Patroklos quickly pointed to Nightmare and said, "Aunt Cassandra! He was being mean to us!"

Pyrrha nodded and wiped her eyes. "Nighty called Pat a mewling child!"

Walking over to her niece and nephew, she grabbed their rackets and twirled it in her hands. "Patroklos, Pyrrha, fetch me all the birdies you can find."

"Wa-wait! What are you doing?" asked a panicky Nightmare.

"I'm going to pound you into the ground with my skills of course," Cassandra retorted as she readied her rackets.

Nightmare raised up his racket and shouted, "Just try woman! With my Soul Edge racket, no one can defeat me!"

Cassandra smirked. "Did you forget that I and Raphael am the two best tennis players on the cast?"

"Huh?"

From the sidelines, Siegfried hollered, "She's telling the truth Nightmare! She and Raphael even made a cameo appearance in some kind of tennis game!"

Nightmare huffed, "Whatever. No one can defeat me now that I have the Soul Edge racket! And tennis is different from badminton!"

Cassandra just shrugged and she waited until her niece and nephew had two buckets of birdies. "Ok guys, throw them up for me!" As the birdies flew up into the air, Cassandra whacked them towards Nightmare furiously. Siegfried and the people watched from sidelines with wide eyes as the Azure Nightmare got hit by a million birdies. Cassandra's arms were moving so fast that it was a blur and within five minutes, Nightmare was buried under a pile of white and yellow birdies. Grinning to the kids, she said, "Winning is all that matters. Winning... Right kids?"

Patroklos and Pyrrha cheered as she held their hands and went to buy them ice cream. Siegfried hurriedly rushed after them when Cassandra told him to guard the wedding rings Rothion had finished making and they ditched Nightmare who was struggling to get out of the pile of birdies.

* * *

><p>"Why does it feel like we're doing the haunted mansion thing all over again?" whimpered Talim as she, Kilik, Setsuka, Amy, Zwei and the two old priests crept past the underground experiment rooms of this weird and very evil cult.<p>

Kilik gasped and pointed as a few shadows appeared behind them. "They're near! We must hurry!"

The group ran for it and when they saw a door, they immediately entered it. When the footsteps passed, Amy gave a relieved sigh. But this quickly changed when she saw what was in the room. "What in the world..."

"Eeeeek!" Talim hid her behind Setsuka, who had popped her umbrella open to cover the monstrous sight for the young priestess. Zwei was covering his puppy's eyes and he had a look of pure disgust on his face.

"They're... making more Astaroths?" Kilik walked over to the giant test tube and he peered at the creation floating in the slimy green liquid. "All I can say is that Maxi isn't going to be happy about this.

Setsuka sighed and said, "I can just imagine the look on his face once he finds out."

"That foul man...," said the two old priests. "We sent Ashlotte to destroy Astaroth since we've realized that what we've been doing is wrong. But now... she's getting married to that monster and Kunpaeteku is making more of these things. The horrors... however, these things won't work until Kunpaeteku has his hands on Astaroth's core."

Talim blinked at the two curiously. "But there's no way that vile man could get the core. Astaroth is too strong and he has Ashlotte on his side."

The priest suddenly noticed a piece of paper that said 'Evil Plan 135264' on it and he quickly read it. "Ahhh, dear child," said the old priest as he patted her head. "It seems that Kunpaeteku is planning on infiltrating the wedding and he's going to use the opportunity to kill Astaroth and take the core."

Everyone gasped and Amy said, "We must leave this place and warn my father. If our team is successful in protecting Astaroth, Algol will give us more bonus points than Zasalamel's team!"

Zwei coughed, "You're thinking of points instead of saving a life?"

Amy scowled at him and her pigtails bounced slightly. "I don't really care about that golem in the first place. Secondly, my father must win this contest so that my awesome Calibur World will remain a reality forever."

"I hate to interrupt but we must flee this place and hurry," Setsuka interrupted them quietly. Flipping open her cellphone, she pursed her lips. "Curses... The wedding is tomorrow."

On cue, Kilik's cellphone rang and he flipped it open. "Hello?"

"What is taking you maggots so long to find those damn priests for my wedding!" Astaroth's voice came through Kilik's cellphone really loudly and everyone flinched. Kilik quickly tried to explain about Kunpaeteku's evil plan for the wedding but then Astaroth cut in once more. "Listen here you worms, I want you to get your butts back here with those two priests asap or else it'll rain blood. Understand!" And a buzzing noise echoed through the creepy experiment room as Astaroth shut off his phone.

Finally, Amy said, "Maybe we should just let Kunpaeteku kill him."

Talim gasped. "Amy! That's a horrible thing to say!"

"And if that man gets his hand on the core, we'll be dealing with alot more of that jerk," said Kilik, pointing to the giant test tubes of Astaroths.

All of a sudden, the doors opened and Kunapeteku and his tough body guards walked in. "Well well, if it isn't my prisoners." He flashed a smile that revealed all of his yellow teeth at Talim. "Ahh, the fair priestess. You've been a naughty girl, trying to escape me and all."

Talim shuddered and she hid behind Setsuka and Kilik who immediately readied their weapons and glared at the vile priest. "I'll cut your hands off if you dare touch her," said the geisha as she showed him the silver sword hidden in her umbrella.

Kunpaeteku frowned slightly until he noticed Amy. "Ah, another pretty girl. What brings you here?"

Amy hissed and she showed him her vampire fangs. "Take one step closer and I'll have you for dinner."

The priest took one step backward. "Touchy... Well, I prefer the exotic maiden Talim anyway. Now, why don't you drop your weapons before someone gets hurt." Snapping his fingers, his muscled tattooed body guards walked in and they aimed their guns at the group.

Zwei raised up his arms questioningly. "What's the point of muscles if you're going to use guns?"

One of the guard shrugged. "It scares people."

"Good point," acknowledge Zwei. "But... let's see how you handle this!" He kicked over a table of concoctions and he grabbed two vials of chemicals and chucked them at the guards. Black smoke enveloped the room and Zwei shouted, "Ein! Lead the way! Everyone, follow me!" Grabbing Amy's hand, he ran for it as everyone hooked arms and followed him.

"Get back here!" Kunpaeteku shouted angrily.

Running into another room full of dark and evil artifacts that Kunpaeteku has been collecting, they slammed the door shut and shoved a bunch of random items in front to bar the door. Only a few candles on the candle holders on the walls were lit and Amy glanced around the room full of evil junk. Evil books, evil necklaces, evil pencils, evil shoes, evil... huh? She walked over to a sparkling purple orb and peered at it curiously. Underneath it, Amy saw that it was called the 'Quattor Orbis'. A sudden banging noise made her stand straight up and she saw Talim, Kilik, Setsuka, the two priests and Zwei bracing themselves against the door as Kunpaeteku's body guards tried to break through.

"This is bad!" groaned Zwei as he pushed an evil cabinet over to help block the door.

Talim cried, "I don't want pedo bear to get me!"

Amy looked around frantically but the sparkling orb seemed to be trying to grasp her attention so she read the description tag underneath its holder. "This orb will grant its wielder the ability to read the future and use teleportaion powers in exchange for-" before she could finish, the door swung open and Setsuka, Kilik, Zwei, the priests and Talim flew across the room and landed right at her feet.

"Ahaha! You will all be punish when I throw you back into my dungeon," laughed Kunpateku, stroking his black goatee as he entered.

"Keep dreaming," retorted Amy, grabbing the orb. "Everyone! Hold on to the orb!"

"No! Stop them!" shouted Kupaeteku. But it was too late as the group vanished with a flash of bright light.

A bright flash of light appeared in Raphael's castle and Amy, Talim, Kilik, Setsuka, and the two old priests landed in the living room. "Oof! What? Where are we?" Kilik said dizzily as he shook his head.

Talim looked back and forth and said, "Hmm? We're in Raphael's castle. Wait... where were we a moment ago?"

Kilik frowned and said, "I... We... we were going to get the two old priests to conduct the wedding for Ashlotte and Astaroth." Seeing the two old priests, Kilik said, "Well, I guess we completed our mission. But it feels like we're forgetting something important... Setsuka, Amy, why are you here with us?"

Setsuka rubbed her head and replied, "Ummm... I don't know. I think we went to get you because you were in trouble." When she noticed the leather pants, open vest and dragon tattoo on Kilik, she said dryly, "I don't think Xianghua is going to dig your new look."

Kilik looked down at his outfit and gasped. "What happened to me?" He turned and gasped again when he saw what Talim was wearing. "Talim! Why are you wearing such short black shorts and such a revealing top!"

Talim squeaked and covered her chest immediately. "Oh no! What happened? And is that tattoo real Kilik?" Kilik merely ran off to try and scrub off the mark and pray that it was fake. Pounding her head, Talim murmured, "I think we were in trouble..." She turned to the two old priests and said, "Were we in trouble?"

"I'm sorry my child, but I can't seem to remember how we met you and how we got here," the old man replied tiredly. "My head hurts..."

Amy frowned at the purple orb in her hand. "What is this thing?" Everyone scooted over to her on the white carpet floor and peered into the orb.

"Wow, it's so pretty!" Talim admired the sparkling orb and said, "Amy, where did you get it?"

"I... I don't know." Amy rolled the orb back and forth in her hand. "It would look nice if I use it as a decorative ornament for my room I suppose."

Just then, Cassandra popped her head into the room. "Woah! What are you guys doing here?" When the group shrugged, the Greek girl said, "Well, it's good to see you. I see you've brought back the two old priest. I'll go and show them their rooms while-" But then Patroklos and Pyrrha ran in and the two kids said hi to everyone there. Cassandra grinned and told them to go off and play while she handled some important grown up matters.

As Setsuka watched the two leave, she suddenly had a vision of teaching Patroklos her fighting style. Patroklos? As her student? Setsuka tried to imagine it and all she could see was the young boy wearing her kimono. Which was very disturbing... Shaking her head, she said, "I need a nap."

Talim yawned beside her and agreed. "Yea... me too."

Standing up, Setsuka and Talim waved good-bye to the group and headed upstairs for the bedroom. As they walked past Raphael's door, they head him scream. "Huh?" Talim paused by the door and looked at it worriedly. Just then, Scheherazade appeared and she had a bottle of painkiller in her hands. Talim quickly said hi and said, "Scheherazade! The wind and I are pleased to see you. Umm, what's happening anyway?"

The elf girl grinned. "Things are pretty good for me and my cousin Link. As for the vampire, he's sort of undergoing treatment right now."

Setsuka quirked an eyebrow and eyed the medicine curiously. "Oh? Is he sick?"

"Nah, he just has an arrow in his butt," laughed Scheherazade. Knocking on the door lightly, Link opened it a small crack so that none of the women there could see anything.

"Hiya ya hiiya? (Did you get the medicine)?" When he saw Talim, he grinned and waved to her since they were friends when he was a guest in SCII. But then his eyes went wide when he saw her outfit. "Hiaya ya? (New clothes?)"

Before he could chat with her, Raphael shouted from his room, "Hurry up before it gets infected!"

Link gave Talim an apologetic smile before taking the medicine and closing the door. By now, Amy and Zwei had walked up the stairs and she looked at the door with a tired expression. "Oh father..." Shaking her head, she headed to her room to put the orb on her dressing table and show Zwei his room as well.

Talim was about to ask about how bad the wound was until she remembered that Raphael had called her 'Flatter than an ironing board'. With a huff, she stuck her nose in the air and walked away with Setsuka. "Humph, I hope the wound gets infected," thought Talim. But then she realized that it was too mean so she said to the wind, "Well... just make it slightly itchy for him wind."

* * *

><p>"Isn't it beautiful?" asked Sophitia as she beamed at the giant cake with pride. It nearly touched the roof of the tree-house and the amount of calories in it was enough to turn the whole cast into giant human rolling balls like Hwang and Rock. But it was very pretty. Icing of yellow and pink lined the edges of and roses carefully made out of hard sugar crystals decorated the vanilla cake. Sugar crystals and spirals were carefully applied to the side and Hilde and Tira were struggling to put to an Astaroth and Ashlotte figurine made out of candy on the top.<p>

Tira wobbled abit and she had to adjust her stance on Voldo's shoulder; whom she was currently standing on. "Stop moving," growled Tira, trying to reach the top of the cake and put the damn golem figure on it. Voldo hissed in slight annoyance as her boots dug into his shoulders.

From the other side, Hilde was balanced on Yoshimitsu's shoulder and she nearly had a heart attack when she almost toppled over and onto the cake. "Woah! Woah! Woah!"

"Are thou going to be alright?" asked Yoshimitsu, who was standing on one of his manji underling's shoulder.

Hilde nodded and wiped away the sweat from her face. Down on the ground, Sophitia watched the two nervously and paced back and forth. Turning to the lizards and manji soldiers who were standing around, she asked, "How in the world will we get the cake out of the house? It's not going to fit through the doorway." She glanced around and then she looked up. "I guess we'll have to take out the roof and get a helicopter to take it out that way. So..." She smiled at them and handed over a bunch of saws and other construction materials. "Let's hurry and take out the roof! The wedding is tomorrow and we're running out of time."

"What! You can't take out our roof!" Tira protested loudly, shaking the figurine at Sophitia. Below her, Voldo was hissing out something similar.

But Sophitia reassured them that it wouldn't take long to put the roof back on and she quickly ordered the lizards and soldiers to get a move on it. However, the manji clan and lizards frowned at the tools and shook their heads. At that, Sophitia gave them a chilling smile. "Do you want me to ask the gods to strike you with lightning again?"

They turned to the smoking lizard in the corner and blanched. Without another word, chainsaws roared and axes chopped at the beams holding up the roof. Sophitia grinned and turned back to the project at hand. "No no Hilde. Move the figurine alittle more to the left."

Hilde groaned and stood on her tippy toes to adjust the thing. All of a sudden, the dining table the cake was sitting on cracked and then it broke. Sending the cake down about thirty inches. With a smile, Yoshimitsu grabbed the figurines and plopped it right in the middle. "Perfect!"

Just then, Zasalamel entered the treehouse with Spawn and Heihachi. "What... are you doing to my roof!"

"Saw faster!" ordered Sophitia. Taking out her giant metal spoon she ran over and began to fight Zasalamel who drew his scythe.

"I asked you a question," said the black man dangerously as they traded a few blows back and forth. "What are you doing to my roof?"

Sophitia sighed and tilted her head towards the giant cake. "We need to take out the roof to get the cake out of here."

"Why didn't you just say so?" Zasalamel frowned and stepped back. "I can suck that cake into my blackhole and make it spit it out at the wedding."

"Really?" Sophitia asked with wide eyes.

Heihachi coughed, "This guy already sucked Kratos into his blackhole so I'm sure this cake should be fine."

Sophitia said, "Alright. But make sure nothing happens to my cake. Ok?" She pointed the spoon at Zasalamel threateningly but the man just rolled his eyes at her and he quickly told her to stop the lizards and samurais sawing at the roof.

When order was obtained, he sucked the ginormous cake into his blackhole and wiped his hand on a towel. "Now that's finished, please leave my house." He watched as Sophitia, Hilde, Yoshimitsu and the Manji clan left and he breathed a sigh of relief. Finally... some peace and quiet.

"Hey Zassy! Who are these guys?" asked Tira as she stared at Spawn and Heihachi curiously.

"The guests from SCII are invited to the wedding," answered Zasalamel. "Since Raphael has an arrow stuck in his behind, I was forced to go and invite them. Darth Vader and his apprentice should be arriving at the wedding tomorrow since I've sent the invitation through my black hole."

Noticing something, Voldo tugged on Zasalamel's sleeves and pointed at their roof. Before they knew it, the tree-house trembled and the roof collasped. Beneath the pile of rubbles, Zasalamel growled, "Spawn... Heihachi... you'll need to room at Raphael's castle for now. While I go and... SUCK SOPHITIA INTO MY BLACKHOLE!"

* * *

><p>At Algol's office...<p>

The Hero King looked up when a delivery guy knocked on his door. "Come in."

"Delivery here for Algol. Your dress suit is here as ordered," said the young lad as he showed Algol his black tuxedo.

Algol nodded appreciatively before signing the clipboard and and giving the guy a nice tip. Smiling at the audience apologetically, he said, "I am very sorry for the long wait but Darkwings13 laptop broke down and she was unable to update as scheduled. But at least you'll have the big wedding coming up next chapter. From my sources..." He glanced around to make sure no one was listening. "I heard that it's going to be a very very very long chapter."

Smoothing back his hair, he pointed to the speech on his computer he was going to be making at the wedding. Just then, he recieved an email. His eyes widened when he saw it was from his boss; Darkwings13. "Hold on a minute people." Blocking the screen, he read it quickly. When he finished, he deleted it and turned to the audience. "Well, Darkwings13 just said she wasn't too happy with this chapter so if you find it to be rather lacking, then please feel free to criticize. She will try her best for the next one and she apologizes if you found this chapter to be disappointing. But she sends her regards to her reviewers for the last chapter."

Algol scanned the names on his computer quickly. "ThalieXVII and diegofu who are her constant supports, I applaud you for keeping my boss happy," said the Hero King as he flashed them a bright smile. "In Darkwings13 place, I also thank Sigpig and FuriousMick98 for your kind words. And she is highly honored that you sign up just to favorite and subscribe to this story FuriousMick98."

Scrolling down his computer screen, he continued onto the next list. "Next, here are the names of the readers who have favorited this story since the last chapter. Wraith the Destroyer (cool name), Sigpig, SoulCaliburess and contradicting lines (I can't put a period between your name, sorry); I, the mighty Hero King thank you for donating your time (and money) to this story." Standing up, he puffed up his chest. "For the sake of this story, Darkwings13 and I will work harder so that the next chapter will be better than this one. Accept our aplogies please!" And Algol whipped out some coupons for Soul Edge badminton rackets. "They're not the real rackets but the design is spot on. Here, take as many as you want my dear readers," and he chucked them at the audience.

Giving the audience a slight bow, he pointed to them and said, "Until next time my people. Look forward to the wedding between the human doll Ashlotte and the golem Astaroth. Will they be successfully married? Will the wedding go as plan? Wii there be tears of joy or tears of rage? Come back next time and find out. Farewell!"


	32. Astaroth and Ashlotte's Wedding Part 1

"So... you're Amy's new friend? And you're renting a room in my castle?" asked Raphael, looking down at Zwei. He glanced at the white puppy chewing the hem of his pants. "And this is your dog?"

"Ein, come here." Zwei picked up his dog and nodded. "I already handed Amy the money for my room yesterday."

Before Raphael could say something, Yoshimitsu hollered from the car, "Hurry up! Thou are wasting our time and we're wasting away in this blasted heat!" Everyone that was jammed in there hollered the same thing as the car sat there in Soul Land's parking lot.

Everyone was well dressed for the wedding and Raphael adjusted his suit carefully. "In a minute." Turning back to Zwei, Raphael held out three fingers. "You can certainly have a place in my home and since you're going to be a character for SCV (Algol signed the papers immediately when he saw Zwei and the Hero King said something about how he would attract alot of fangirls to support the Soul Series), I suppose I should be nice to you. But you must follow three rules if you wish to stay."

Zwei shrugged and adjusted his purple tie. "Ok."

"First, you must not try anything with my Amy. Second, you must not let your dog ruin any of my furniture and if I see dog dodo on the floor, you're out. And third, do not try anything with my Amy."

Zwei arched an eyebrow at the vampire. "We're just friends. And technically, that's only two conditions."

"HURRY UP BEFORE I CRITICAL FINISH YOU!" shouted Cassandra, poking her head out the window. She was in a frilly pink dress with a white ribbon around her waist (all the women had to wear it) for the big event and the other women in the car were urging Raphael to hurry since it was kind of stuffy in there.

"It's kinda stuffy in here!" shouted Siegfried, wiping away some sweat from his forehead as he tugged on his black suit.

"Wind!"

"Thanks Talim," said everyone as the wind priestess gave them some fresh air.

Raphael glanced at Cassandra and grinned. "But Cassandra, who said I minded you using your critical finish on me? After all, you do have a nice butt."

Hearing this, Sophitia said, "Gods!" Lightning came down from the heavens and it fried Raphael as Zwei jumped away. Crossing her arms, Sophitia said, "If I hear you say something lecherous about my sister again, I'll double the lightning bolts Raphael."

Zwei gave the unconscious and blackened Raphael a tilt of his head before heading off to help with setting up some stuff for the wedding. His puppy gave the vampire a bark of dislike before chasing after its master.

Kilik sighed and got out of the car. "Come on Talim, we need to heal him."

Talim pouted slightly before following the monk. She wobbled a bit in her coral pink high heels and as she looked down at the sizzling vampire, she sighed. "I don't wanna..."

After ten minutes...

Raphael was back to normal but as he got into the driver's seat of his newly repaired batmobile, he shot the Greek sister's a look of dislike. Taking out the schedule, he pursed his lips. "Hmm... so you ladies are supposed to be assisting Ashlotte for some minor things while we men are supposed to go help Astaroth. And when they're both ready, we'll head back to Soul Land for the wedding. The ceremony will take place at the Lost Cathedral Stage (Siegfried's stage from SCIII) and when the two kiss and are pronounced man and wife, we'll start the party. Which is..." Raphael licked his lips and continued reading the list. "Taking place at the Distant Marsh Stage (Talim's stage in SCIV)."

"Yay," chirped Talim cheerfully, sitting between Ivy and Setsuka.

Raphael nodded. "I've already killed most of the dodo birds and I've cut down almost every single tree there so that we can set up the tents and other party stuff such as the DJ table and giant tables of food for the buffet."

"You horrible person!" sobbed Talim. "How could you cut down all the trees! And you killed all the birds? I wish I never healed you!"

"Have you no honour?" asked Hilde.

"Thou should be ashamed of thyself," lectured Yoshimitsu.

Sophitia sighed and adjusted the elbow length white gloves she was wearing. "May the gods have mercy on your corrupted soul."

"Are you done yet? Can we go now?" Raphael said impatiently.

"WE WERE ALL WAITING FOR YOU SO SHUT UP!"

Driving by, Zasalamel adjusted his cool dark sunglasses and gave Raphael a cold smile. "As tardy as ever Sorel. Well, that's to be expected from the likes you."

Tira popped her head out the window and grinned. For the occasion, she let her long brown hair down and she looked quite nice today. Too bad she was still mentally unstable... "Ha, see you later losers!" Two seconds later, she turned gloomy. "Ugh... I hate weddings. Maybe I should kill one of you and turn this into a funeral."

"Tira." Zasalamel shot her a strict look and Tira reluctantly sat back down in her seat.

Beside her, Nightmare popped his head out the window as well. "I heard that Astaroth was going to kill anyone that showed up late. How about you offer me your souls right now you wretched humans."

Cassandra examined her nails dryly. "So Nighty, how's your injuries from that badminton game."

"Hmm? What happened?" asked Sophitia. Cassandra began telling her the story and she laughed. "Oh my, that's quite a badminton game. I can't believe you managed to defeat Nightmare and his Soul Edge badminton racket."

"Shut up!" hissed Nightmare threateningly. "If it wasn't for this restrictive suit, I'll go over there and devour your souls."

"Enough bickering," ordered Zasalamel. "It's time to get going." And with that, he drove out of the parking lot and nearly ran over some customers who had to jump out of the way.

"After him father!" shouted Amy who was sitting behind her dad.

"Right on it Amy!" Stepping on the pedal, he chased after Zasalamel.

Looking into his side windows, Zasalamel frowned slightly. "Curses, he's catching up to us."

Cervantes glanced over at Hwang and Rock and said, "Thanks for slowing us down."

Hwang and Rock growled at the pirate threateningly. "If you say one more word about our weight, we'll sit on you."

Cervantes replied, "I already had Rock break my leg when he rolled over me. What else can you break?"

Hwang said, "With me and Rock combined, we should be able to break every bone in your body. Ack!" He looked as a rip appeared on his sleeve because of his fat arm. "Darn-" Before he could say something, another rip appeared on the other arm. From both sides, Seong-Mina and Yun-Seong took out their pocket sewing kit and began repairing the black suit. For like the millionth time.

The same thing happened to Rock so Xianghua and Voldo had to borrow the kit and repair the outfit for Rock. But Xianghua was horrible at this type of thing and she kept pricking Rock with the needle. "Sorry!"

"It's alright Xianghua," said Rock. "I can't really feel the pain through all the layers of my fat."

Anyway, both cars managed to arrive at the hotel at the same time and in the fancy lobby with gold wallpapers and a giant crystal chandelier (and a very pretty receptionist standing behind the oak counters), Algol greeted them. "Ladies and gentlemen, glad you could make it on time. Now... Taki, Mitsurugi, where's your cameras? We'll be filming the wedding and after, we'll sell the videos for a great price of $49.99."

The samurai and ninja sighed and whipped out their cameras. "Ready..."

Algol grinned and said, "Now you men go and find Astaroth while you ladies help with Ashlotte. Ready... Get set..."

"Wait!" Nightmare raised up his mutated arms and waved it around to get the Algol's attention. "Why can't we wear our Soul Calibur outfits? I hate this suit and Ivy looks fat in pink."

Ivy immediately stomped onto his foot and she grinded her pointy stiletto shoes into his foot. "Squirm."

"Ow ow ow owwwww!"

Algol arched an eyebrow as Nightmare pushed Ivy away from him and moved to the other side of the room. "Due to the fact you men mostly have outfits that are unsuitable for the wedding, we had to force all of you to wear suits to be fair. Because seriously, who wears armors to weddings?" Nightmare and Siegfried coughed and looked away. Algol also pointed to Rock. "And most of your outfits either have animal heads or it's simply not formal enough." And then the Hero King pointed to Voldo. "Don't even get me started on your bondage themed outfits." Next, Algol turned to Lizardman. "I have to say Lizardman, you look quite human with that suit. Your green tie is also quite nice."

"Sssss hshshsss (Thank you)."

Algol then turned to the ladies and said, "You ladies have some pretty nice outfits but Ashlotte insisted that you all wear that pink frilly dress. Anyway, are we ready to get started?"

"Wait!" Yun-Seong popped his hand in the air. "What are we suppose to do with Astaroth? He's only putting on a suit."

Algol grinned. "I heard that he hasn't memorized his lines for the wedding yet."

"WHAT!" cried all the men.

Kilik ran a hand through his hair tiredly. "My soul cries at its fate already."

The Hero King shrugged. "Anyway... go!"

* * *

><p>When the people left, Maxi came forward and said to the receptionist, "So... what's Ashlotte's room number?" The receptionist ripped off her face mask to reveal... Dampierre! A couple who just walked by stared at the mustache man who was wearing a red skirt, heels, a white blouse and black stockings. After 1.5 seconds, they fainted at the strange sight. "That's alittle unfortunate," muttered Maxi who glanced over at the bodies lying on the lobby floor. "But you do look weird in women's clothes Dampierre."<p>

"As long as Le Bello gets paid, then it doesn't really matter. But I must say, I think I look quite ravishing," said Dampierre, admiring his legs (which he thinks is quite long and sexy).

Maxi shuddered before saying, "So? Do you have the number?"

Smirking, the con man handed Maxi a piece of paper with the room number on it while Maxi gave him another thick wad of cash. Looking at the number, Maxi grinned. "Thanks man. Anyway, you know what to do next right?"

"Le Bello is already on it." And Dampierre put on another face mask and left the lobby with his sharp hidden daggers.

* * *

><p>Twenty minutes later...<p>

"Sorry but this is for my happiness," said Maxi, dragging the hairstylist named Tracy, through a deserted hallway of the fancy hotel. Looking around, he noticed a janitor's closet and grinned. "Perfect!" The door was unlocked and he quickly shoved the guy in. Taking out a bottle of super glue, he applied it to the sides of the door and swung it shut. Next, Maxi whipped out his disguise bag.

Ten minutes later...

Standing in front of Ashlotte's door, Maxi ran a hand through his newly dyed blonde hair and checked himself out with a pocket mirror. "Oh yeah baby..." He was currently wearing dark sunglasses, a nice black dress shirt and black pants and he even had a fake name tag with the name Tracy on it. Those women will never realize who he is... Muhahahahahha! Clearing his throat, he was about to knock on the door when all of a sudden, it swung open and his hand landed on Setsuka's chest. All the blood drained from his face as he looked up at her. The geisha glanced down on the hand on her chest and she looked... "Hey, she didn't look mad at all," realized Maxi, hastily withdrawing his hand. "Umm, sorry about that."

Setsuka laughed and waved it off. "Don't worry about it Tracy. If you were a straight man, I would have to cut off your hands and them into the oceans to be fish food. But since you're not, it's alright. I'm actually quite relieved that you're finally here. Ashlotte needs to get her hair done right now. Come in." And she pulled him into the room full of beautiful women.

Sophitia leaned against the pink walls and raised up some white heels and said, "Hmmm, you're wearing these ones?"

On the queen size bed with a white canopy, Cassandra and Seong-Mina began ogling the shoes. Next to the windows with the pale gold curtails, Xianghua and Amy were looking over the schedule for the wedding while Taki stood to one side with the camera as she recorded everything. Sitting in front of the dressing table, Ashlotte nodded. "Those were the most expensive pairs I could find."

"How much did they cost?" asked Ivy, powdering Ashlotte's cheeks.

"Five hundred dollars and fifty two cents."

"Oh..."

Beside the human doll, Ivy and Hilde were busy with applying the make-up while an excited wind priestess watched. "Oh my, you look so pretty Ashlotte. I wish I knew how to put on make-up..."

Ivy smiled at Talim. "Once I'm done with Ashlotte, I could put abit of mascara and lipstick on for you Talim."

Talim squealed happily. "Thanks Ivy!"

Hilde and Ivy both looked at the adorable girl and smiled. "Ahem..." Setsuka coughed and all the women turned their heads her way. "Everyone, here's the hair dresser me and Amy have hired. His name is Tracy. Now give him some space so that he can do Ashlotte's hair."

They all scooted away from Ashlotte and watched as he approached her. Giving the doll a nervous smile, Maxi said, "Hi there. So, is there anything that you would particularly like or am I free to be creative with your hair?"

Ashlotte looked at his hands. "Your hands doesn't seem like they belong to a hairstylist. They're worn and rough and it seems like they belong to a warrior."

Maxi laughed and waved it off. "Ahaha... oh my dear, you're so funny. Ahaha... Anyway, I shall now get started." He took out a kit full of scissors, hairspray, hairgel, razers, and other hairstylist stuff. Turning to the ladies around him, he said, "I'm sorry ladies, but you'll have to leave the room for abit."

Amy shot him a suspicious look. "Why?"

Maxi felt a bead of sweat slide down his head and he quickly wiped it away. "Well, I just want you to be surprised. You'll all be amazed how beautiful she'll look once I'm done with her hair."

They women talked to each other for abit before exiting the room in a single file. As Hilde walked by Maxi, she accidentally tripped over her long pink dress. "Oof!"

"Hey, careful there Hilde," said Maxi as he helped her up.

As Hilde stood up, she realized something. "How do you know my name?"

"Uh... I... I'm your biggest fan! Your sense of honor and courage has made me cry many times," lied Maxi. "Can I have your autograph later on?"

Hearing that, Hilde quickly nodded. "Of course! As my fan, you certainly deserve an autograph. Just bring me a paper and a pen later on."

Maxi sighed in relief when he was finally alone with Ashlotte. Looking at the doll who was sitting in front of the ornate dressing table, he thought to himself quietly, "Don't blame me, blame Astaroth." And he raised up a pair of sharp scissors that shined dangerously in his hands.

* * *

><p>"This is bad!" cried Astaroth, wringing his hands in worry as he slumped down on the big bed. "Can't you maggots see how bad this is? It's so bad, that my heart is racing like crazy!"<p>

Zasalamel said dryly, "Yea... we can see that alright." And all the men looked at Astaroth's beating heart that was outside his chest.

Raphael put a hand over his eyes. "Can you wear a suit over that please? The sight is disturbing me."

Leaning against the gold walls, Mitsurugi pressed a button on the camera and it zoomed closer into Astarith's beating heart. "This is going to gross people out," thought Mitsurugi as he recorded this.

Clearing his throat, Kilik said, "Perhaps some meditation will help you calm down Astaroth."

Astaroth immediately grabbed his shirt and snarled, "Listen here! The wedding starts in two hours! I don't have time for stupid stuff!"

Kilik slowly narrowed his eyes. No one calls his Buddhist meditation techniques stupid and gets away with it. "Dvapara-Yuga." Blinding blue light shot out from Kilik's blue necklace and it blinded everyone in the room. Even Voldo was blinded and this didn't make sense since the dude was already blind but oh well... When the light died down, Kilik looked at Astaroth calmly. "Done yet?"

"I'm going to tear you apart!" roared Astaroth.

Kilik merely closed his eyes once more. "Dvapara-Yuga." More light shot out from Kilik's necklace once more and blinded every men in the room. This happened three more times until Astaroth got it through his big head that he wasn't going to win this one.

Nightmare grabbed Astaroth once the golem began moaning how the wedding was going to fail because he couldn't remember his lines. "Listen here, I've had to babysit two brats for way too long for you to mess up now. Just practice the damn lines and get this over with. You've still got time! Here, let's practice right now!" Reaching over, Nightmare grabbed Siegfried and shoved him into Astaroth's arms.

"Hey!"

Ignoring Siegfried's protest, Nightmare began assigning positions to everyone. "Ok, Zasalamel and Kilik, you two can be the priests. Mitsurugi... you can continue being the cameraman. Hwang, Rock, Yun-Seong, Yoshimitsu, you guys can be the groomsmen. Raphael, Cervantes, Voldo, Lizardman, you guys can be the bridesmaid."

"Those are some pretty ugly bridesmaid," Yun-Seong whispered to Hwang quietly as the two laughed.

"Who's the best man?" asked Nightmare, looking around.

Astaroth pointed to the Azure Knight. "You can be my best man if this works out."

Nightmare shrugged. "Whatever. Anyway, you need to look deep into Siegfried's eyes and pretend that he's Ashlotte. And then you need to read these wedding vows!" Scribbling on some papers, Nightmare gave it to Astaroth. "There you go!"

Siegfried shuddered as Astaroth stared deeply into his eyes and began reading the vows. From both sides, all of the men were trying to stifle their laughter. "I always thought that Siegfried looked like a girl," snickered Raphael.

Hearing that, Siegfried pointed at Raphael. "Take this." Ice crystals suddenly froze the vampire and everyone stared at the crystal statue.

"How did thou do that?" Yoshimitsu asked as he poked the frozen man with his wooden arm.

Running a hand through his hair, Siegfried smiled. "I still have some of Soul Caliburs powers in my body even though I don't have the sword.

Yun-Seong looked at Raphael thoughtfully. "I like this guy much better when he's like this."

"Us too," said all the men in the room.

* * *

><p>Opening the door, Maxi adjusted his sunglasses and smiled at the ladies waiting outside. "Okey dokey ladies, I'm done. Now, go in there and see how gorgeous the doll looks. Bye bye!" Before he could run, Amy grabbed him. Maxi gulped and said, "Uh... what is it little lady?"<p>

"You forgot your paycheck."

Hilde added, "You forgot to get my autograph."

Maxi quickly reached for his pocket pen and the cheque. Handing it to Hilde, he said, "Here you go."

"You want me to write on your cheque?" asked a perplexed Wolfkrone princess. "Okay..." When she finished, Maxi grabbed the paper and walked away while swaying his hips to make sure that the ladies were convinced that he was Tracy. With a shrug, Hilde was the first one to walk into the room. "Why did he turn off the lights? I can't see anything. Someone, turn on the lights!"

Fumbling around, Xianghua turned on the lights and when she looked at Ashlotte, she gasped, "I'm not kidding when I say that Ashlotte lost her hair!"

Sophitia held a hand to her heart and whispered, "Holy Hephaestus..." And then she fainted.

"Oh wind of the great skies..." Talim covered her eyes and squeaked, "What happened to you Ashlotte?"

"OOOOOOHHHHHHHH MMMMMYYYYYYY GOOOOOOOOODDD!" screamed all the females as they entered the room.

* * *

><p>Screams from Ashlotte's room reached Astaroth's room (five whole floors apart) and all the men stopped what they were doing.<p>

"Did something happened?" asked Rock, using his wilderman senses to listen. He had trained his ears to listen to the faintest sounds so that it would help him hunt and he closed his eyes and concentrated. When another scream rent the air, he howled in pain and clasped his hands over his sensitive ears. "I heard the word 'Ashlotte' and the word 'ugly'."

"What?" Astaroth quickly pointed to Siegfried and said, "You! Go and see what's going on!"

Siegfried was relieved to not have Astaroth stare deeply into his eyes so he quickly ran out of there. When he got to the elevator, he saw a blonde man wearing sunglasses and holding some pale violet hair in his hands. "Hey, did you know anything about that horrible scream that rent the air like five minutes ago?" asked Siegfried.

Maxi coughed and said, "Nope. Uhh, sorry but I got to go. I have things to do."

Siegfried shrugged as the man ran away. Pressing the elevator button, he waited impatiently for it to open. After ten minutes, he sighed and used the stairs...

Five floors of stairs later...

Knocking on the door, Siegfried panted, "Open up. It's Siegfried!"

Opening the door, Tira giggled. "Oh, it's good to see you Siggy! Come in and look at Ashlotte!"

"Huh?" Walking in, he glanced at all the grim faces. "I can't see anything. Ivy's too tall." Ivy sighed and stepped aside. As she did, Siegfried saw Ashlotte and he screamed, "HOOOOOLLLLLLLYYYYYY CALLLLIIIIIIBUUUUUURRRR! Where did your hair go!"

Ashlotte glanced at her bald head and replied, "Tracy took it."

Cassandra gestured to Ashlotte and said, "What are we going to do now? Ashlotte can't go out looking like this!"

Ivy snapped her fingers. "I have a plan but it will involve a heavy sacrifice." She looked at the women (and Siegfried) standing before her. "Someone with long hair will need to give Ashlotte their hair.

Sophitia, Seong-Mina, Hilde and Siegfried looked at each other. "No."

Crossing her arms, Ivy said, "Ashlotte cannot be bald for her wedding. Astaroth will kill us all so can someone just suck it up and be a hero?" Ivy's eyes zoomed in at Siegfried.

Seeing how anguished her boyfriend looked, Hilde sighed. "Take it. Take my hair."

"Hilde!" Siegfried held her and said, "I cannot allow you to do this. Your beautiful hair..."

She smiled at him. "It's alright Siegfried. I didn't spend as much money on it as you." She narrowed her eyes. "I know you spent more than two hundred dollars on your hair every month."

His eyes teared up and he hugged her. "Hilde..."

Taki caught this on camera and said, "This is pretty touching. But can we hurry up already?"

Hilde stepped away from Siegfried reluctantly. "Alright... I'm ready."

* * *

><p>"Hold still," snapped Zasalamel, trying to adjust the tie for Astaroth. "Alright, do you remember the plan we've gone over?"<p>

Astaroth glanced over at Yun-Seong and Nightmare who was talking on the phone. The two were calling to rent a hot air balloon and after five minutes, Yun-Seong covered his cellphone and hollered, "It's going to cost us a thousand dollars for such short notice!"

Zasalamel rubbed his eyes tiredly. "We'll take it." Turning to Astaroth, he said, "I'll use my magic to make the clouds spell out the wedding vows for you. All you have to do is read it and try not to look suspicious."

Astaroth nodded. "Alright. Let's make it rain flower petals for my wedding!" And he pumped his fist in to the air.

All the men stared at him for a moment before Mitsurugi drew his eye from behind the camera and said, "That wasn't cool at all. Just letting you know big guy."

* * *

><p>"How do I look?" asked Ashlotte. She brushed a few strands of Hilde's red hair away from her face and then she adjusted her wedding dress.<p>

"You look great." Hilde smiled and touched her short hair. "You know, I actually really like this style. Thanks for using the wind to cut my hair Talim."

Talim beamed at the princess cheerfully. "The wind likes people who are nice Hilde. And it's the least I can do for you. You were so brave..."

Hilde laughed and ruffled Talim's hair and Siegfried said a polite thank you to the priestess for giving his girlfriend such a nice haircut. "Well, it looks it's time to get into the car and drive to Soul Land for the wedding. Everyone ready?" asked Siegfried.

All the women in the room grinned. "Let's get this wedding started!" cheered Seong-Mina and Cassandra.

Down in the lobby, Astaroth was surprised at how beautiful Ashlotte looked. "Did you dye your hair my doll?"

Ashlotte was about to explain that a man named Tracy shaved her bald but Amy quickly clamped a hand over her mouth. "Yes, Ashlotte decided to dye her hair your favorite color. We all know you like red because it reminds you of blood."

Astaroth said, "Awww... sweetheart." And he gave her a kiss on the cheeks.

Looking at his watch, Algol motioned for them to hurry. Exiting the hotel, a lovely black limo was waiting there for the couple. But when they got in, the car let out this strange noise that sounded... like this. Fshshshshshhhhhhhhhhh...

In his wheelchair, Cervantes looked around and said, "Did someone farted?"

Kneeling down, Taki used her camera to examine the tires in great details. "It looks like someone messed up the tires with some really sharp daggers."

"How will they get to the wedding now?" exclaimed Nightmare. Suddenly, he had a bright idea. "Hey, let's just use our car."

"Sorry Nighty," said Tira, looking at their car's flat tires. "Some dude got our tires as well."

Setsuka pointed to Raphael's batmobile. "How about Raphael's car?"

"It's busted!" shouted Cassandra, kicking the useless tire. "And someone scribbled Astaroth sucks on your windows!"

Raphael raised his hands into the air and cried, "Noooooooo! I just had it repaired! And now I have to clean the graffitti off as well?"

Yoshimitsu walked over to Cassandra and scrubbed at the words. "It's permanent marker. Thou'll need new windows!"

Raphael swore and this caused Rock and Sophitia to slap him. "Hey! We have children here!" And they pointed to the young kids exiting/entering the hotel with their family.

Algol began backing away and then he used his powers to fly away from this problem. "This is your problems people. I want Astaroth and Ashlotte at the wedding on time or else! If Astaroth doesn't make it, Raphael's team will lose one thousand points. If Ashlotte doesn't make it, it will be Team Draw that loses the points. If both doesn't make it, your salary will be cut for three months."

Hearing that, Yun-Seong rolled his shoulders and bent down. "Ashlotte, get on my back! I'll carry you as far as I can and when I get tired, someone else take over for me."

Voldo, Lizardman, Zasalamel, Nightmare, Xianghua, Seong-Mina and Tira gave him the thumbs up. "We're right behind you!"

Mitsurugi and Taki said, "We're filming so unfortunately, we can't help."

Rock and Hwang sighed. "It's going to be difficult for us to roll there by ourselves..."

Cervantes looked at the two grumpily. "Thanks to you too, I'm in a wheel chair!"

"We don't care."

Ashlotte held up her wedding dress daintily as she got on the Korean's back. "Thank you Hong Yun-Seong." But when she got on his back, she crushed him flat.

"Ahhhh! My back!"

Ashlotte quickly hopped off the Korean's back while his teamates surrounded him. Looking at Ashlotte, Zasalamel asked, "How much do you weigh?"

This was usually an offensive thing to ask but Ashlotte was a human doll so she didn't mind telling him. "I'm four hundred and ninety three pounds."

An awkward silence ensued until Zasalamel said, "That's almost double Astaroth's weight. We'll need to travel on foot."

Xianghua piped up, "But Ashlotte can't possibly run all the way to wedding! The dress will get ruined!"

Zasalamel grinned. "That's why we use magic. Alakazam Shobikobo!"

Raphael's team watched as those guys disappeared in a puff of smoke. Next, they all turned and looked at Astaroth. Clearing his throat, Siegfried said, "I don't think anyone on our team is capable of carrying Astaroth. Even if he weighs less than Ashlotte..."

"Why don't we just call a taxi? Duh!" Cassandra whipped out her cellphone and began calling. "Huh? What!"

Setsuka looked at her anxiously. "So? What happened?"

Cassandra threw her phone on the ground and stomped on it. "It's international Rest Day for taxi/bus/train drivers!"

Kilik stroked his chin thoughtfully. "I have an idea..."

Five minutes later...

"Run Astaroth! Run! Dvapara-Yuga!" Kilik held up his necklace and watched as Astaroth screamed and ran away from the purifying light.

"I'll get you for this maggot!"

Kilik whacked him with his Kali-Yuga. "You lack resolve and training! For your bride, put more heart and effort into your wedding instead of calling us maggots and making us do everything for you! We've done our parts, now it's your turn! After all, we're not the one marrying her! You are! Hurry up before you're late for your own wedding!" And Kilik smacked Astaroth's butt with his staff some more.

"OWWWWWWWWWWWW!"

Jogging beside Kilik, Amy said, "I don't think I've ever seen you like this before. Except for that one time at the haunted mansion where you beat Maxi up when you thought he was dating Xianghua."

Kilik replied, "I just want this wedding to be a success for Ashlotte's sake. She's a pretty nice person and the least she deserves is a nice wedding." When all the girls heard that, they gave Kilik an admiring look.

From the streets, everyone watched as the giant group of girls wearing pink dresses, guys wearing suits and a very angry golem ran towards Soul Land.

* * *

><p>At Soul Land...<p>

Algol landed down on the ground and looked at the hundreds of guests milling about. In the middle of the distant marsh stage, a giant wedding tent (that could cover about ten football fields) stood in the middle. Hard wood floors were laid down and thousands of elegant tables with pink and white covers sat underneath the high peaked tension tent. Lanterns and some hanging fabrics were already set up in there and Algol strolled over to look at the nice plates and wine glasses on the tables and at the floral centerpieces Zasalamel and Raphael had made. The pink, red, and yellow roses were artfully arrange and he nodded approvingly.

Leaving the tent, Algol looked up as a spaceship approached. Which meant that Darth Vader, Yoda and The Apprentice had made it just in time. He saw Link from a short distance away, gazing at the magnificent waterfalls while Scheherazade and his adopted daughter, Kami, talked to each other. The sky was a bright blue and birds were chirping while the hippos (thankfully,Raphael didn't kill them) moved around in the giant lake. Only a few trees were left standing since the vampire ordered his servants to chopped down most of them to make room for the guests so that they could dance and walk around.

Finally, he noticed Zwei. "Zwei!"

The young man walked over. "What?"

Algol laughed and shook his head. "I just wanted the audience to take a good look at you boy." He turned Zwei around and made him face the audience. "Say hi to them!"

"Uhhh..." Zwei cleared his throat and said, "Welcome to... uhhh... this chapter of Calibur World, written by Darkwings13. Thanks for reading?"

Algol gave Zwei a few pats on the back. "Such a charmer! You have done well but now it's my turn." Gesturing to Zwei, Algol said to the audience, "Darkwings13 is quite pleased with this young man and she has decided to make him her main in SCV."

Zwei interrupted him. "I thought Talim was Darkwings13 main. And isn't her second favorite Raphael?"

Algol said, "You'll understand in due time young one." And he shoved Zwei behind him. "As you can see, all of you readers, all of you ladies and gentleman have been invited to this wedding! Put on your best outfits and come back to celebrate the second part of this wedding in the next chapter. At the very least, you can expect about three parts to this wedding. Anyway, to the new guest who favorited this story, Darkwings13 sends her thanks to InsaneRaven13 and she likes the number 13 in your name."

Algol chuckled abit before pointing to four individuals in the audience. "To FuriousMick98, Iyana Shinzo1216, ThalieXVII, and mardeeo, in gratitude for saying nice things for that last chapter that Darkwings13 wasn't too happy with, you four get the seats of honor!" And he pointed to some seats with gold cards on them under the giant tent. "Also, Darkwings13 is honored that you've signed up just to support this story mardeeo. She's also glad to hear that you like your Soul Edge badminton racket." Adjusting his gold tie, Algol flashed the audience a bright smile. "I look forward to seeing you at this wedding readers. Till next time!"

"Arf!"

Algol looked at Zwei's puppy and he had a thoughtful expression on his face. Picking up the dog, he whipped out a pink ribbon and tied it around Ein's neck. "Perfect!"

Zwei looked at his dog and said, "I... don't like it."

Ein agreed with his master and he bit Algol's finger.

"Oww!"


	33. Astaroth and Ashlotte's Wedding Part 2

"Hurry up people, we're on a tight schedule here," ordered Algol as he shoved people through the beautiful white doors of the Lost Cathedral Stage (Siegfried's stage in SCIII). Beside him, Darth Vader was using the 'force' to make a path for himself and the Apprentice. Nearby, Yoda got stepped on since he was so small. It was only thanks to Spawn that the small green guy managed to make his way to his assigned seat.

"I thank you for your assistance, may the force be with you," said Yoda gratefully.

Spawn just shrugged and sat down on the frilly white covered benches that had been prepared inside the place. Nearby, Scheherazade was trying to stab someone since the guy stepped on her foot. "Hey! Watch it you idiot!" Link was trying to be the peacekeeper while Heihachi was shaking his head at the whole affair and wondering why he decided to come in the first place.

Just then, a some kind of flying motorcycle came flying through and Lloyd showed up. "Whew, glad I made it on time." Kami and Arcturus quickly went over to escort Lloyd to his seat. When everyone was jammed into the Cathedral, things got alittle hectic after ten minutes. Quite sad since the place was extremely beautiful as water flowed from both sides of the stage and an angelic statue stared down at the mob of impatient people.

"Where's the groom?"

"Where's the bride!"

"When is the party starting?"

"Hey, I thought Kratos was supposed to be here?"

Spawn said, "He's still in Zasalamel's blackhole for now."

Rubbing his eyes tiredly, Algol raised both hands in the air and shot out two giant purple bubbles for their attention. "Everyone! Be quiet or I'll shoot you!"

Someone snickered,"With bubbles?"

Algol glanced over at the man and shot him. Everyone quickly stayed silent when the bubbles vaporized the guy and the only thing that remained was his nice dress shoe that slowly melted into a pile of smelly rubber. Smoothing his tuxedo, Algol grinned. "Bubbles of doom."

The three shop keepers Lynette, Hualin and Valeria smoothed their pink dresses and began giggling to each other. "And that's why Algol was banned in tournaments for SCIV." Their master was Cepheus and he wore a straw hat with a long hanging veil that flowed down to his chest, efficiently covering his face. Standing beside them, he gave them a stern cough and the three shopkeepers stopped giggling. Bored, they began chatting about their duties as the bridesmaid while waiting for Astaroth and Ashlotte to show up.

* * *

><p>At the hospital near Soul Land...<p>

Kunpaetku strolled through the hallways with two of his muscled bodyguards. Coming to a stop in front of a door, he walked in and grinned at the woman lying in the bed. "Shura... nice to see you." Shura's whole body was in a white cast and she looked like a mummy that had just been recently preserved. It seems that she still hadn't recovered from the explosion that happened in chapter 8 and apparently no one really remembered her because she didn't get any get well cards. "It seems that no one remembered you Shura," laughed the priest as he took out a syringe with some strange green liquid inside. "Do you want to teach them a lesson for forgetting you?"

Shura said something unintelligible and the priest laughed. "Well then, here's your medicine." He injected the green stuff into her arm and stood back to watch. Two seconds later, Shura sat up and a black aura enveloped her body. The cast on her body cracked, broke off and she grinned wickedly. "Humph, I'm going to make sure those guys pay for this..." She reached for her sharp katanas on her bedstand and smiled as they gleamed in the light. "So... what's the plan?"

"I need you to kill someone," said Kunpaetku. "And I don't care how many people you need to kill to get to Astaroth."

Shura leaned back and glanced at the two tattooed bodyguards. "Ha, I like your style. But I've learned my lesson. I'm going to do this solo. Got it handsome?"

Kunpaetku stroked his black goatee. "No problem. But I'll be attending the wedding along with my bodyguards to make sure that you don't fail me. So if all goes well, I can enjoy some cake and have some fun with a certain young girl while you kill that loathsome golem and give me his heart."

Shura laughed loudly. "You are one sick man but I like it..." Getting off the bed, she rolled her shoulders and said, "So you got a ride and an invitation to this wedding?"

Snapping his fingers, Kunpaetku's bodyguards immediately gave Shura a fake invitation. "As for the ride, we stole someone's car."

"Great, let's get a move on it then," said Shura, walking out the door. As she stepped out, her doctor arrived and he gasped.

"It's a miracle! I thought you were going to be immobilized for the rest of your life my dear!"

Shura growled, "Some doctor you are! I've been stuck here since chapter 8 and it's already chapter 33! What kind of doctor are you?"

The good doctor fumbled for his papers nervously. "Well... all of the bones in your body was broken and you even had internal bleeding! I don't know how you made such a miraculous recovery..."

Shura snorted and pushed him aside. As Kunpaetku walked out, he held out a bottle of the green liquid. "This would be the miraculous drug that helped her recover. Care to buy it from me?"

"What is it?"

"Concentrated energy drinks and abit of my own secret cult magic." He rolled the bottle in his hand and grinned. "Hmmm... I think this will be quite useful in the future actually. Never mind, I'll be taking my leave." And the group of evil villains left.

* * *

><p>Adjusting his outfit, Maxi walked through the doors of the cathedral and everyone gasped. "MAXI?"<p>

"Hey there everyone. How's it going?" asked Maxi as he walked over and sat down on a white bench.

Arcturus poked his father who was drinking some coffee. Turning around, Algol choked. "Maxi? You actually came to celebrate Astaroth's wedding?"

Maxi put a hand on his heart and nodded solemnly. "Yes. I've decided that no good will come out of trying to ruin or avoid this wedding. So after they get married, I shall resume my quest to kill him, which will make Ashlotte a widow and my vengeance will be satisfied. But for now, I'm just going to enjoy their wedding cake that's loaded with a million calories and relax while the calories clog up my arteries."

Everyone looked at him suspiciously but before someone could say something, Team Draw and Ashlotte appeared. As the smoke cleared away, Ashlotte curtsied in her beautiful white wedding dress. "We have arrived."

"Splendid!" Algolg motioned for her to take her spot and then he pointed to the piano organ. "Voldo! Hurry up and take your seat. Everyone else, sit down and wait for Raphael's team to get here."

"We're here! We're here!" hollered Kilik, Raphael, Siegfried, and Yoshimitsu as they dragged Astaroth through the doors.

"Oh my god! He's dead!" cried Kami.

Raphael gasped for breath and waited for the stitch in his side to fade away. "Don't worry... He's... cough... just fine. Wake up!" Raphael kicked the golem's body and the audience gasped at the violence. "Hurry up and get up Astaroth!"

Kilik shook the golem and slapped his face. "Astaroth! Wake up! Your bride is waiting for you! You can't die on us! You're only seven years old man! You're too young to die!"

Arcturus leaned over and whispered to his dad, "Why are they talking like that? It's as if Astaroth is lying on his deathbed."

Algol shushed his son. "Son, don't say such unlucky things on a wedding day."

"Sorry father."

Just then, Ivy came in and she held up two defibrillators in her hand. "Stand aside, I've got this!"

"Wait!" Sophitia held up a hand and pointed to his chest. "But his heart is outside of his chest! That thing won't work! It'll fry his heart!"

As everyone fussed over Astaroth, Maxi remained seated and grinned. It looked like Dampierre had succeeded after all. Muhahahahaha... Beside him, Zwei glanced at the snickering man. Something did not seem right about that evil grin Maxi had on his face. Zwei then glanced over at the mob that was now offering some really strange suggestions to revive the golem.

"Let's use the power of the dark side to revive him," suggested Darth Vader. All the other guests looked at him and said that was stupid since Astaroth was already an evil golem relying on evil powers to move around.

A random guy wearing the hideous orange wonder jacket said, "Nightmare! You should take off your shoes and put them in Astaroth's face! The smell is sure to wake him up!" Nightmare immediately knocked the guy out with his mutated arm for suggesting that.

"Maybe Ashlotte should just marry someone else for today," suggested a random guy, eyeing the beautiful doll with a perverted glint in his eyes.

At that, Siegfried kicked the guy into the running waters and he was soon swept out of sight as he sank like a rock and fell about a hundred feet below as the path ended into a sheer drop. As people pushed and shoved to try and wake up Astaroth, someone unintentionally turned him over and Hilde noticed something. "Wait... what is that thing sticking out of his butt?"

They leaned in close and Ashlotte narrowed her eyes. Without hesitation, she yanked it out (everyone gasped) and examined it. "A dart made out of copper metal that is approximately two inches long and the weight is about 30 grams."

"Someone tranquilized the guy and you people didn't notice?" Cervantes asked with a disbelieved look on his face.

Setsuka coughed. "He needed to go to the washroom so we ran into a restaurant to use the restroom. When he didn't come out, we merely assumed that he... didn't eat enough fibres. But time was running short so we sent the men in and they found him like this." She glanced at the dart and sighed. "How are we going to proceed with the wedding now?"

"It looks like it'll have to be cancelled, " said Maxi mischievously, turning around in his seat. "I guess they weren't meant to be."

Talim cried. "But they really loved each other... This isn't fair... Wahhhh..."

"Don't worry everyone, I have the answer to your solution." They all turned around as Kunpaetku and his two bodyguards strolled into the cathedral. Taking out an needle with some purple potion in it, he said, "This will be just the thing to wake the poor man up. Now please stand aside while I administer the drug. So pretty lady, there's no need to cry."

Talim felt alittle nervous around this strange man and she hid behind Hilde. "Ummm... thank you for being so kind sir."

Kunpaetku grinned as he realized that she and the others had no memory of him. Splendid! Bending down, he was about to stick the needle into Astaroth's arm when Maxi interrupted him. "Hey hold on! I thought I killed you!"

The priest eyed the pirate warily. "You thought you did but thankfully, I'm still alive. Now be quiet." He smiled to himself wickedly as the medicine flowed into Astaroth's bloodstream. Standing up, he said, "He should be up in three seconds. One... two... two and a half... three!"

Astaroth's eyes popped wide open and he sat up. "Wha-What's going on here?"

"The wedding!" announced Algol loudly, looking at his watch. "Everyone! Get into your seats! Hurry!" Snapping his fingers at Voldo, he told him to start playing Mendelssohn's Wedding March. Turning to the audience, he whispered, "I suggest you play this while you're reading my dear readers/guests."

"Who are you talking to?" asked Amy, walking past him.

Algol laughed nervously and waved her off. "Nothing. Nothing at all. Now hurry up and sit down Amy. Hey Zasalamel! Where's Kratos? He needs to attend this as well!"

With a sigh, Zasalamel opened up his blackhole and everyone braced themselves against the strong vortex trying to suck them in. Two seconds later, the blackhole spat Kratos out. "How dare you do this to the mighty God of War! I will-"

Before the God of War could finish, Zasalamel cast a spell to freeze him solid. "Much better." And he pushed the statue off to one side so that Kratos can watch the wedding. Everyone was alittle disturbed since Kratos's eyes moved around while he was trapped in his icy prison so Zasalamel had to push the God of War to the very back of the crowd. Like they say... Out of sight, out of mind.

* * *

><p>"I saved you a seat Amy," said Zwei, picking up his puppy and gesturing to the seat besides him.<p>

"Why thank you!" Raphael said quickly as he sat down beside Zwei. Patting the seat besides him, Raphael told his daughter to sit down as he glared at Zwei.

The young man merely shrugged and offered Siegfried and Talim the other seats beside him. Siegfried smiled and said, "Thanks. By the way, that's a nice dog you have there. What kind of breed is it?"

"I'm not sure. I found Ein wandering around looking for food so I just took him in."

Raphael immediately piped up, "Wait! Does that mean your dog didn't get his shots yet?"

"Yep."

"What! That means your dog could have rabies!" said a horrified Raphael. Hearing that, Ein immediately bit Raphael. "Aeeeeaaaahhhhh!"

In front of him, Yoshimitsu turned around and shushed him. "Raphael, the wedding is starting. Please shut thy mouth or I'll cometh over there and slap you with my wooden hand."

Beside Yoshimitsu, Scheherazade didn't turn around but she did add, "If you don't shut up, I'll get Link to shoot an arrow into your butt."

* * *

><p>In the back, Zasalamel, Yun-Seong and Rock were sneaking out to get to the hot air balloon that was prepared for them. After reviewing the plan once more, he gave the signal for Taki to cover for them by moving behind the frozen God of War. Noticing the bunny ears popping out from behind Kratos's head (which was the signal), Taki adjusted her camera and whipped out three ninja seals. "Ogi!" Three clones of Zasalamel, Yun-Seong and Rock appeared and Seong-Mina and Xianghua made places for them.<p>

The Korean girl looked at the Yun-Seong clone with interest. "I wonder..."

Beside her, Hwang glanced at her as she took out a black marker and drew a curly moustache onto the clone. "What was that for?" She merely laughed and continued drawing. Hwang shook his head. Why was Seong-Mina and Yun-Seong always playing jokes on each other?

Behind them, Edgemaster coughed and gave his student a disapproving look. "Seong-Mina." She flushed and quickly threw the marker away and it hit Cassandra by accident. Edgemaster leaned back into his seat and he waved at Talim's grandmother who was searching for a spot to sit down. "Here, I saved you a seat Kalana," said Edgemaster as he gestured to the seat beside him.

"Thank you," replied Talim's grandmother as she proceeded to sit down.

But then Olcadan sat straight up and hooted, "No Kalana, I saved you a better seat. Here, sit beside me!"

Edgemaster and Olcadan glared at each other from two benches apart and they argued on which seat was better for Talim's grandmother. Opening her white fan, she sighed and glanced around until she spotted her granddaughter. "It's alright. I'll go and sit with Talim."

"Noooooo!" moaned the two old men as they watched her leave with a swish of her light white robe.

"Grandma!" chirped Talim as she gave Kalana a hug. "Where's mom and dad?"

The great wind elder sighed. "Your dad decided to test out that new flying car that's powered by wind energy. I think he ran into some trouble so they'll be alittle late."

Hilde's dad heard this and turned around in his seat. "Do you need any help in bringing them here?"

Hilde agreed with her dad. "Please, tell us if there's anything we can do to help. We Krones hold friendship in our highest regard."

Kalana answered, "That would be much appreciated."

Hilde motioned for her soldiers who was there, acting as bodyguards for her father. "Gerhilde, lead ten men to go and find Talim's parents. For the glory of the Krones, don't fail me."

"At once princess Hilde." Gerhilde bowed and quickly left with ten of her soldiers.

* * *

><p>"Can't you move to another seat?" hissed Ivy as she somehow managed to sit besides her accursed father.<p>

Cervantes grunted and pointed to his legs. "Unless you're blind, you can clearly see that I'm in no shape to move."

"Then I'll help you." And Ivy shoved Cervantes over. But this caused him to tip off his seat and fall onto the ground; the process ended up breaking his nose.

"Yooowwwwchhhh!"

Lizardman and Tira helped him up. "You're bleeding Cervy Beards," Tira whistled as Cervantes pinched his nose to stop the blood flow.

"Well... do something and stop it!" Cervantes roared angrily.

Tira pouted and searched the crowds. She suddenly noticed Setsuka's paper umbrella lying beside her. The geisha just left her seat momentarily to help Sophitia and Cassandra chase after Patroklos who was running around so when Tira was sure no one was looking, she tore off a huge chunk of the paper on the umbrella. Rolling it up, she stuck it straight up Cervante's nostrils. "There you go Cervy! That should stop the bleeding."

Ivy coughed into her hand, "How uncouth."

Cervantes immediately grabbed his pistol sword with his other hand and aimed it at Ivy. "Take this!"

"You're going blind as well as lame." Ivy ducked and the shot hit Nightmare who was beside her.

"Hey!" shouted the Azure knight. It's a good thing that Nightmare was currently just an evil spirit inhabiting a piece of armor or else that would have killed him. Right now, it just blew a hole in his nice suit. Looking at the smoking hole where his heart should be, Nightmare glared at Cervantes threateningly before poking Xianghua. "Hurry up and sew up this hole woman."

The chinese girl frowned. "Can't you say please?"

"The Azure Nightmare does not say please!"

"Ok," said Xianghua cheerfully.

Nightmare looked rather surprised by her answer. "Really?"

"Just kidding!" And Xianghua turned in her seat and continued repairing the hole in Rock's suit instead.

"Hey!"

Kilik smiled at his girlfriend. Turning back to the front, his eyes suddenly went wide. Where were the two priests? His eyes moved from left to right and then he hissed to Arcturus who just walked past him. "Hey, have you seen the two priests?"

Algol's son stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Strange... they were here before you guys showed up. But after the whole panic situation with Astaroth, no one really noticed them." And he walked away to escort Ashlotte to the end of aisle.

His hearth thumped loudly in his chest and Kilik turned around frantically to look. Suddenly, he noticed two bodies washing down the running waters and he slowly began chewing on his fingernails. It can't be... In a zombie like trance, he watched as the two dropped out of sight and when he saw who it was, he nearly fainted. Scrambling out of his chair, he ran towards the edge of the water and walked along the path until it came to an end and the water fell down about a hundred feet below. All of a sudden, a bright pink hot air balloon caught his attention. He saw Zasalamel, Yun-Seong and Rock and shouted, "Guys! I need your help!"

Yun-Seong spotted the monk but he couldn't hear a single thing that was coming out of Kilik's mouth. "What?" Kilik continued waving his arm like a wild monkey and he kept pointing down. Finally, the Korean kid noticed and he leaned over the edge of his hot air balloon. "Oh my wind! I mean-" Yun-Seong knocked himself on the head a few times. It seems that Talim's wind quotes were starting to affect him. Meanwhile, Zasalamel was adjusting the propane burners and trying to make their hot air balloon fly alittle higher but this was rather difficult due to Rock's huge weight gain. Yun-Seong grabbed him and shouted, "Zasalamel! Ashlotte's two priests are heading towards a waterfall!"

"What?" Rock and Zasalamel looked and the scythe wielder groaned. Snapping his fingers, he teleported the two bodies into his hot air balloon and... the thing immediately dropped twenty feet. Pulling on the string to put more hot air into his balloon, Zasalamel looked at the people who were jammed into the hot air balloon. "Can someone please jump out to lighten the load?"

"That's harsh," said Yun-Seong, giving Rock a pat on the back who was sobbing something that sounded like 'Astaroth's fault... my beautiful muscles... Bangoo."

Zasalamel narrowed his eyes when he saw the two darts sticking out of the priests arms. Pointing to the clouds, he began spelling out a message to Kilik. THEY'RE ALIVE BUT SOMEONE TRANQUILIZED THEM. GOOD LUCK ON FINDING A REPLACEMENT IN THE SPAN OF FIVE MINUTES.

Seeing that the two priests were safe, Kilik felt slightly relieved. But in their state, they can't possibly conduct the ceremony! He ran to the back and started calling for Talim. After awhile, she spotted Kilik who was waving at her from behind the frozen God of War. Sidling away from her grandmother, she ran over to him. When he told her what happened, she put a hand to her mouth. And then she began to wail. "Wahhh! Those poor old-"

Kilik had to clamp her mouth shut and he said, "Don't worry Talim. They're still alive but they won't be able to perform the ceremony now." He pulled at his tie and looked around. Finally, he gasped and pointed to Kunpaeteku joyfully. "Why don't we ask him? He is a Fygul Cestemus priest so he'll know what to do."

Talim gulped and fiddled with the pink fabric of her dress. "But... oh alright."

Kunpaeteku jumped slightly when he felt someone tap his shoulder. Seeing Talim and Kilik, he grinned. "Yes?"

Kilik explained the situation and Kunpaeteku laughed. "I understand your... delicate situation but this is out of my hand. But I guess I can help... especially for such a pretty girl like you..."

Talim pushed away his hand and hid behind Kilik. "I-I ask you to please keep things civil sir."

He grinned and flashed a smile full of yellow teeth at her. "I like it when they play hard to get. Wait just a second now little priestess." He got up along with his bodyguards. " I guess I can help. I've already took the day off to come to this wedding in the first place so why not?"

* * *

><p>Five minutes later...<p>

"Everyone, shut up!" Algol clapped his hand for their attention and finally, the ceremony was ready to begin.

Sophitia and Rothion kissed Patroklos and Pyrrha on the cheek and motioned for them to do their parts in the wedding. Cassandra gave them a push and grinned. "Come on guys, show your Aunt Cassie what a good flower girl and ring bearer you are."

Blushing, Pyrrha began throwing the pink petals behind her as she walked down the aisle. Beside her, Patroklos was bouncing with excitement as he delivered the rings. When the kids walked past Nightmare, he stuck out his foot and tripped Pyrrha. "What a clumsy little girl," laughed the Azure knight as Pyrrha cried and Sophitia rushed over to comfort her child.

"NIGHTMARE!"

Nightmare froze as Cassandra grabbed the flower basket and glared at him. "Payback!" And she slapped him three times with the flower basket before dumping the pink petals on him.

Nightmare screamed and batted at the petals. "It's so pink! So soft! And so girly! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!" And he fainted.

Pyrrha laughed and Cassandra scooped some of the petals back into the basket. The two sisters ruffled her hair and pushed her to keep going. "I'm so proud of them," cried Sophitia, wiping away a tear when Patroklos and Pyrrha made it to the end.

Next, everyone watched eagerly as Ashlotte began to make her way down the aisle and Voldo played the wedding march on his piano alittle louder. Standing in the front, Astaroth nervously dusted his suit and watched as his bride slowly walked towards him. Under her white veil, Ashlotte gave him a small smile as she stepped up beside him. But when she saw Kunpaetku behind the podium, she asked, "Why are you here?"

"I'm here to conduct the ceremony that will make you two man and wife."

Astaroth suddenly noticed and he roared, "Maggot! What makes you think you can conduct my wedding?" In their seats, both Kilik and Talim cringed and looked at the exit.

Kunpaetku shrugged. "You should be honored. I am the High priest after all. And your two priests suffered heart attacks and they had to go to the hospital. Unless you want a buddhist wedding which Kilik can conduct, or a traditional wind wedding which the lovely priestess Talim can handle, then I'm the only choice you have left."

Astraroth crossed his arms. "I rather take both the buddhist and wind wedding! It just means me and Ashlotte will be doubly blessed by their deities. Now get out of the way or I'll break you in half worm!"

"WHAT!" Kilik and Talim sat there in stunned silence until Raphael turned around in his seat and pointed to the stage.

"Hurry up and get up there you two."

Talim squeaked, "But I've never done something like this before! Grandma!" She tugged on Kalana's white sleeve. "Can you do it?"

Talim's grandmother looked at her thoughtfully. "Hmm... this would actually be a very good experience for you as a wind priestess Talim. Now go on and make me proud."

Xianghua ran over to kiss Kilik on the cheek and she pushed him out of his seat. "Go Kilik! You can do it!"

Stumbling up to the podium, the monk and priestess looked at each other nervously. Silence ensued until Kilik began speaking in chinese while Talim spoke in tagalog. The two kept stumbling over their words and occasionally, one or the other had to pause as they tried to remember their lines. Growing frustrated, Algol hissed, "Why aren't you using english?"

Talim whispered, "I don't know the english translations! It's really complicated and my village also uses the ancient language of the wind which has no translations!"

Kilik added, "I can't do this in english. If I mess up, no one will know since I'm speaking chinese. Oh, except for Xianghua but then again, she doesn't know the religious duties and teachings of Buddhism that well."

* * *

><p>In the his seat, Lizardman was bored and he started making paper airplanes. It seems that by combining a buddhist and traditional wedding gig together, this ended up doubling the length of the ceremony and since most people there couldn't understand what the hell Kilik and Talim were saying, everyone was feeling rather sleepy. Seong-Mina eyes slowly closed and she tilted sideways, using Hwang's soft body fat as a comforting pillow. Hilde's father yawned and he looked at his watch. Behind them, Siegfried was trying his best to watch so he kept pinching himself. In the air, Zasalamel rested his chin on his hand as he stood at the edge of the hot air balloon and they waited for the whole thing to finish already. For Soul Edge's sake, this was only supposed to take an average of twenty minutes! It's been an hour! Rubbing their eyes, everyone in the hot air balloon sighed. Soon, the warm air from the propane burners, the dragginess of the wedding, and the fact that they didn't get much sleep this past week made them really tired and they fell asleep.<p>

On the piano seat, Voldo had stopped playing and he was cutting his fingernails with some clippers and the clipping sounds added to the monotonous atmosphere. Raphael rubbed his tired eyes and leaned back against the chair. Reaching into his pocket, he took out his cellphone and started playing Angry Bats. Beside him, Zwei shot the older man a disapproving look. "Are you seriously playing Angry Bats in the middle of a wedding ceremony?"

"Quiet kid, I'm trying to concentrate." Raphael smiled as his bats destroyed all of those pesky dogs that stole the bat's babies. Oh... such cute bats...

Sitting off to one side, Shura adjusted her sunglasses and growled. "What the hell is taking so long?"

Maxi was beside her and he said, "I can't believe I'm saying this but I wish they're married already!" He pulled on his black dress shirt and glowered at Astaroth. "The sooner you're married, the sooner I can turn this whole thing into a fiasco..."

Everyone jolted awake when Talim clapped her hands. "Now, please say your vows. The wind-"

"And the great Buddha," added Kilik, shall witness this holy marriage between you two and will bless you once the vows are done."

Ashlotte tilted her head and waited patiently for Astaroth to start. Astaroth gulped nervously and pulled on his tie. "Umm... I..." He glanced to his left and spotted the giant pink hot air balloon floating in the sky. Why weren't they doing anything to help him? Damn maggots! "Hold on my doll, I just need to... take a deep breath and scream out something before I can say our vows," Astaroth said to Ashlotte as he shot a dark look at the balloon.

But Ashlotte shook her head. "That's not in the wedding manual. I'm afraid I can't allow it so please, let us proceed with how the wedding is supposed to be conducted. I would also like to suggest that we hurry up. Kratos is starting to melt and when he does, there's a 99.999999999999999463% he'll kill everyone in here in a very painful manner."

At her words, everyone turned and looked at the God of War who was indeed melting. Everyone in there began yelling for Astaroth to hurry it up. Cervantes looked rather calm though. "Ha! I'm immortal, he can't kill me."

Tira laughed. "Yea, but he can still rip off your limbs."

What Tira said made Cervantes's eyes widened and he shouted, "Hurry up you big fat golem! Or I, the dreaded pirate Cervantes will kill you first before Kratos can get me!"

* * *

><p>The screaming in there intensified and Astaroth began to sweat. Finally, Kilik poked him and whispered, "Just tell her how you really feel about marrying her. If you're stuck, just look deeply into your heart." When Astaroth began unbuttoning his shirt to look at his heart, Kilik facepalmed. "No! You need to listen to your heart!"<p>

"I just hear the ba-dump-ba-dump sound."

"Maybe you should listen to the wind," suggested Talim, flipping through her wind bible.

Kilik shook his head and said to Astaroth, "No! I meant that you should tell her what's in your heart!"

"My life?"

Kilik snapped his fingers. "Yes! She is your life! Now go with that!"

Ashlotte stood there emotionlessly as Astaroth and Kilik talked. Meanwhile, everyone in Team Draw were waving their arms and trying to get the occupants of the hot air balloon attention. "Zassy!" Tira jumped up and down in her seat and continued calling Zasalamel by his nickname.

"Yun-Seong! Hey meathead!" Seong-Mina waved her hands in the air and looked at the balloon and waited to see if the Korean boy noticed. Cervantes had even drew out his gun to fire at the balloon but since it was a stupid idea, Lizardman knocked the pirate out with his tail to ensure that the balloon wouldn't suffer any damage. Looking at the floating hot air balloon, Aeon wished that he had wings so that he could just fly up there and tell them to get a move on with the plan. The men on Raphael's team were also trying to get Zasalamel's attention (except for Raphael since he was still absorbed in his game) but there weren't having much success either.

"Grrrrr..."

Siegfried looked as Kratos growled in the back. A few cracks appeared on the ice and the knight knew that time was running short. Poking Hilde who was sitting in front of him, he asked for her lance. Hilde looked at him questioningly. "Why?"

"See that pink hot air balloon? I need to throw it and let it hit the basket to wake those guys up." He pointed at the airborne object floating in the background and explained everything.

Hilde red lips turned into a disapproving frown. She considered that to be cheating and Astaroth's words should either come from his heart or the golem should have put more effort into memorizing his vows. "It's alright Siegfried, I'll do it for you."

"Thank you my princess..." And he leaned forward to peck her on the cheek.

With the lance in her hand, she got out of his seat and sneaked away from the benches. In the process, Hilde stepped on Raphael's foot and caused our vampire fencer to shoot his red bat off the screen and so... Raphael lost at level 18 on Angry Bats.

Once she was sure no one was looking, she readied her critical finish. "Victory shall be mine." Since the situation was slightly different, she didn't stab anyone and flung them in the air but she did do the same actions as she got ready to throw the lance. "Witness... my power!" And she hurled it with all her strength. The lance shot towards the pink hot air balloon in a straight line and it punctured a giant hole in it. Turning back, she gave her boyfriend the thumbs up. Siegfried's jaw dropped and he sat there in stunned silence at what happened as it hit the balloon and Zasalamel, Yun-Seong, and Rock began screaming their heads off as their hot balloon dropped like a brick.

By this point, everyone in the audience noticed and they were all pointing and screaming while Taki and Mitsurugi caught this on their cameras. "It's the power of the dark side," concluded Darth Vader. The Apprentice glanced at his master for a whole ten seconds before turning his attention back to the hot air balloon.

Meanwhile, Astaroth was busy scribbling the words of the wedding vows onto his wrist as he peeked at the holy books. Kilik and Talim didn't notice since they were busy gaping at the sight of the balloon falling from the sky. "Yun-Seong!" cried Talim worriedly. She was terrified for his safety and she wringed her hands in panic. "Ho-hold on! I'll think of something!"

"Tal! Help meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" Yun-Seong shouted as he held on for dear life.

"Umm...uhh... Wind! Please help them!" prayed Talim. A tornado suddenly turned up and carried the hot air balloon and its screaming occupants far far away...

Zasalamel's last word before he disappeared was, "How was this supposed to help us priestess!"

Reading the wind, Talim started hyperventilating. "Oh no... the wind carried them to the Distant Marsh Stage but I don't know if they'll survive the fall... I think they'll be alright. Oh please... please be ok," prayed Talim quietly.

At this moment, Raphael snapped his phone shut and said sarcastically, "Yea they'll be alright. Maybe a few broken bones and some internal bleedin-" Everyone around him clamped their hands over his mouth.

Link narrowed his eyes and said, "Hyah ha yah eeeya eha ha! (Don't make her cry or you'll be the next guy she sends flying)." Raphael couldn't understand what the elf was saying but he couldn't ask since the people around him were covering his mouth. Even his daughter...

"Dad. Please don't say something that will upset Talim." Amy sighed tiredly. "The amount of tears you've caused her to cry is enough to drown you three times over. And I don't want to see you get hit by a twister."

Raphael's eyes filled with tears. "Amy... you really do care about me."

"Duh. You're my dad." Amy tilted her head slightly. "Oh! If Zasalamel, Rock, and Yun-Seong dies, then we'll win this contest for sure father."

Raphael snapped his finger at his daughter's brilliance. Pushing their hands of his mouth, he shouted to Talim, "Splendid job Talim! You've killed them all! We'll win this contest for sure."

At that, Talim started crying her eyes out. "Oh no! I killed them! Wahhhhh!"

Cassandra and Hilde shot Raphael a dark look. "Way to go Raphael."

Siegfried added, "I think there's a good reason why you had a destined battle with her in this place..."

"Why?"

Siegfried began listing out points. "You two are complete opposites! She's a nice and kind girl and you're a crazy evil guy. She wants to restore the world to normal and heal everyone that's malfested... while you want to malfest the entire world and rule over it like some dictator. She's like the sun and you're a not so pretty moon. She's-"

Maxi started banging on the bench. "Can we get a move on it! My hair is wilting in this heat!" And he pointed to his blonde hair that was starting to droop since he hadn't applied any hair gel or hairspray on it for the past few hours.

When everyone settled down, they all glared at Astaroth. "HURRY UP!"

The golem coughed nervously and sneaked a look at his wrist. " I... Astaroth, take you, Ashlotte Maedel to be my lawfully wedded wife, and the love of my life..." The rest of the ink was smudged and Astaroth panicked. Looking around frantically, he finally stopped and looked at Ashlotte. Staring at her, he slowly said, "You did not run away from me like all those other maggots and instead, you had me running away from you. You are a special woman to me and through the bad and good, I will always love you. I would give you my heart but then I'll die since it's my life's core."

Needless to say, everything finally went well after that and Kilik and Talim said, "You may now kiss the bride." Everyone ahhhhhed as they did but Raphael covered Amy's eyes since he deemed it was inappropiate. Sophitia and Cassandra did the same thing to Patroklos and Pyrrha and when the kiss finished, everyone clapped loudly and cheered. But then...

"Your end begins!" shouted Kratos as the ice trapping him melted. The fires of rage burned in his eyes and he readied his weapons. "Meet your doom!"

Nightmare quickly suggested, "Quick! Let's sacrifice everyone here that's not important and run for it!"

All the people that wasn't part of the Soul Calibur cast glared at him. Grabbing the Azure knight, they chucked him towards the God of War. When that happened, Tira shrieked and rushed over to save him. She whistled for her ravens and a million crows flew towards Kratos and tried to distract him. Voldo sighed and rushed over to help and Hwang tried to follow and lend a hand but then he toppled over and rolled away. Seong-Mina had to chase after her overweight friend so she couldn't help. Nearby, a beam of light came from the heavens and Sophitia received a message from the Greek gods to to kill Kratos. Drawing her sword, she told her husband and children to run for it. Cassandra stood by her sister and groaned. "I hate it when you recieve a message from the gods. What crazy job do they have this time?"

"I have to kill Kratos."

"Ok, that's not too ba... WHAT! KILL THE GOD OF WAR? THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!"

Raphael was running away and he held Amy's hand tightly in his. "Quickly Amy! We must run for it!"

"But-"

"No buts young lady! We Sorels have one rule we must always follow!" said Raphael sternly, shoving people behind him. "Let others die for us and do whatever it takes to survive!"

"You just made up that ridiculous rule!" shouted Hilde, trying to stab Kratos with her lance to protect an innocent civilian.

Siegfried helped her and shouted, "You're a horrible man!"

"Thank you!" shouted Raphael as he escaped. But Cervantes ran over his foot in his wheel chair as the pirate escaped the place as well. "Owwwwwww! Watch it you moron!"

Cervantes shot Raphael's butt with his gun before wheeling out of there. "Now you know despair."

"YOU BLASTED PIRATE! I ALREADY HAD MY BUTT SHOT AT!" Despite the pain, Raphael tackled Cervantes and started throttling him.

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeekkkkk!" shrieked the three shopkeepers as they ran out of the place with Astaroth and Ashlotte.

During the chaos, Algol grabbed Kami and Arcturus and flew out of there. "If you guys survive, then come to the wedding party at the Distant Marsh Stage!"

* * *

><p>One hour later...<p>

The beautiful cathedral turned into Lost Cathedral-Ruin (Abyss's stage from SCIII) as the battle ended. The skies turned red and smoke clouded the skies. The pure waters turned muddy and everything was in shambles. Edgemaster, Olcadan and Talim's grandmother looked at the rest of the Soul Calibur cast disapprovingly. "It seems that the younger generation is alittle lacking,"commented Kalana, fanning herself slowly.

"Kilik. Seong-Mina. I'm doubling your training," Edgemaster said to his two students.

"Please forgive me!" pleaded Kilik.

Seong-Mina said, "I was better then him right?"

"Hey!"

Edgemaster glared at the two until they fell silent. Next, he opened the gate to Astral Chaos and said, "You guys can go ahead. I'll shove Kratos in Astral Chaos and when I see Zasalamel, I'll let him go free and the scythe wielder can freeze him again." Looking down at the unconscious God of War, Edgemaster kicked him in and the portal closed with an audible pop.

"Ok, let's go and party now!" hooted Olcadan.

"Yes!" cheered everyone as they left the places with burns and rips on their clothes.

"Wait!" shouted Cassandra. She picked at her ruined dress. "Are we going to the party like this?"

"Don't worry!" chirped Talim. "Wind!" Magical sparkly wind surrounded them and two seconds later, they looked as good as ever.

Xianghua gasped. "Wow! How did you do that?"

Talim winked. "The wind has many magical properties." Her grandmother smiled and whispered something in her ear that made Talim put her hands to her cheeks and she said happily, "Grandma said that when I get older... it'll sculpt my body and make me beautiful!"

Raphael pursed his lips and looked at her doubtfully. Talim noticed his 'Oh really' look and pursed her lips at him. "I'm going to be beautiful and NOT FLAT in a few years Raphael. Just wait and see."

He grinned and said mockingly, "Sure... whatever you say Talim. I'll believe it when I see it."

* * *

><p>In the air...<p>

Algol was flying across the sky with his kid's hands in his. "Daddy! Are we there yet?" whined Kami as she dangled in the air.

Algol huffed. "Kami, your giant club isn't making this easy for me."

"But I can't possibly leave without it."

Arcturus suddenly noticed the audience. "Father, the readers are here. In a... giant blimp."

The Hero King looked over and was about to say something before a sudden draft of air blasted him backward. When he finally caught up, he said, "SORRY FOR SHOUTING BUT YOU'RE PROBABLY HAVING A HARD TIME HEARING ME! I WOULD TO THANK YOU FOR ONCE AGAIN READING AND THE LONG WAIT MUST HAVE BEEN AGONIZING! OWWW!" A seagull slammed into his face and Algol was busy in trying to spit out the feathers.

Kami tried to bat the bird away with her club but she ended up hitting her adoptive dad in the face. "Sorry!"

Algol didn't get knocked out but he did get a massive nosebleed. He couldn't pinch his nose either since he was holding on to his kids hands so the people below them thought that it was raining blood. Seeing that his father was in no condition to be the spokesperson for this chapter, Arcturus took over. "Umm..."

"Don't worry son. There's a piece of paper in my shirt pocket that'll tell you what to say."

"Thanks dad." Arcturus got the paper and struggled to read it as it flapped in the wind. "First off, Darkwings13 would like to ask chris coard to reread chapter 31 again because she did not forget Spawn. And after all these chapters, she hopes her readers will have more faith in her since she did put in Astaroth and Ashlotte who was missing for about ten chapters and now Shura. They all have a role and will show up at the right time. And if there's one thing that peeves her, it's when someone doesn't read carefully."

"Ohh... she sounds mad," said Kami thoughtfully.

"Of korse she ounds kad. Affer all chese chapchers and hard werk, that's ze onli ting this chris guy zays?" Algol pointed out as he spat some blood out.

Arcturus looked at his father worriedly. "You should fly alittle faster father. Anyway..." Turning back to the paper, he continued reading. "But to ThalieXVII, diegofu, mardeeo, she thanks you for the lovely reviews and hopes you'll enjoy the party in the next chapter. And... Raphael set aside some fancy dodo dishes for you to sample?" Arcturus sighed and said, "Talim's not going to be happy about this... But at least it'll taste good I guess."

Kami looked down and said, "Oh! We're almost here! Quick, keep reading!"

Arcturus obliged and said, "And to two of her favorite friends on 8wayrun who reads this, you two also have seats of honor at the party! This is for Cjiddy, for all your motivating wall posts and to Ninjaguy446 who is a great friend to know. Anyway, there's a poll on her profile page so please check it out and tell us what's your favorite Soul Calibur game. So please vote and come back next time to join the party! Farewell!"

Algol gave his son a proud smile. "Thas my boy. You ade me roud."

"Thanks dad."


	34. The Chaotic Wedding Party

"So… I'm assuming that my daughter had something to do with this?"

Zasalamel was currently hanging upside down from a tree in the distant marshland stage that managed to survive Raphael's evil rampage of dodo bird hunting and tree chopping. He wiggled around a bit before managing to face Talim's dad. "I don't think there are many people in this world that have the ability to summon tornadoes. So yes, she is responsible for this mess I'm in."

Beside him, Yun-Seong felt the blood rushed to his head as he was hanging upside down as well. Their hot air balloon had crash landed on the tree and all of them had toppled out of the basket and do to some kind of cosmic joke, they all ended up upside down. To their surprise, Talim's dad had also crash landed here as well and his wife, the stunningly beautiful wind dancer named Lidi, was currently nagging him about his silliness in trying to make a flying car. The young Korean man sighed and swung his fists at the vines that were holding them. "Hey Zasalamel, can't you use some kind of spell to get us down from here?"

"No need. Our pals are here," Zasalamel said dryly when Team Draw ran towards them.

"Oooohhh. Zassy! You look kinda funny! Your face is all red and I can see your hairy legs!" Tira said as she pranced towards him.

Zasalamel glanced up at his dress pants that had slipped to his knees while he was hanging upside down. He then answered, "I'm a man. It's normal. Get over it. Now hurry up and get me down from here!"

"Yea yea." Tira took out her ring blade and smiled mischievously. "Ok Zassy. There's a 50/50 chance that it might hit you instead of the vines. Hey Cervy Beards! Give me a hand will you!"

Cervantes grumbled as he rolled his wheel chairs over some rocks and leaves on the marshy ground. "Euh. Jest hurry it fup. I vant to eat kome vedding ake alreavy." He adjusted the piece of paper that was stopping his nosebleed before taking out his pistol sword and the two aimed their weapoms at the vines. To Zasalamel's luck (or bad luck), they got the vines and he smoothly dropped to the ground with a slightly annoyed expression on his face.

"Hey! What about us?" hollered Yun-Seong and Rock. The two priests raised up a hand to announce their presence as well.

"Soul Edge! Burn!" Nightmare used his legendary sword of evilness to burn away the vines that was holding them. But that also made the tree catch on fire…

"Aeeeeeehhhhh! Mommy! Daddy!" shrieked Talim as she held up her pink dress and stumbled across the ground in her coral pink high heels. Hilde and her groupie of soldiers (plus Siegfried) were behind her and Gerhilde was reporting to Hilde that they had seen Talim's parents crash landed on that tree. A few other people were right behind them as well.

"Quickly Gerhilde! Talim's parents are in charge of the bingo parties for my father and the rest of their old friends! We must save them!" ordered Hilde. Kalana took one look at her son and daughter in-law hanging from the burning tree and she gasped.

"No need! I'll save them!" exclaimed Edgemaster, drawing out his weapon, the Master. It transformed into a whip that was similar to Ivy and he lashed it around Sanput and Lidi's waist.

"No! I'll save them!" said Olcadan as he took out the Ancient and made it transform into one of Astaroth's axe. And he began chopping down the burning tree. Talim's parents screamed as the tree swayed precariously while Hilde gave swift orders to her boyfriend and her soldiers to try and put out the fire. Busy with shouting at each other, the two old mimic masters were doing more harm than good since the whip was strangling the life out of Talim's parents and the tree might crush them to death if it fell the wrong way.

Mitsurugi continued recording from behind the chaos as he drawled, "Great, more misfortunes and bloopers to add to this weird wedding video."

"That's going to sell for $49.99," Algol said proudly as he walked away. "Hurry up people! We need to take the wedding pictures soon!" In the background, Siegfried somehow managed to catch himself on fire while Nightmare pointed and laughed in his usual childish ways.

* * *

><p>Ten minutes later… under the wedding tent…<p>

"Ok, get into positions people!" Algol ordered as he motioned for the Soul Calibur cast to get into position for the picture. "Ivy, please stop trying to shove your father out of his wheelchair. Lizardman, stand up straighter! Tira, Hilde, stop pulling on each other's hair! For Soul Calibur's sake, Xianghua, I know you are infatuated with Kilik but can you stand on your own two legs without holding on to him? Talim, Amy, where are you two?"

The two short girls raised their hands and said, "We're behind Rock."

Algol rubbed his eyes. "Rock, please move alittle to the left. Ashlotte, come alittle closer to Astaroth. Zasalamel, Raphael, I need you two to stop glaring at each other and smile into the cameras. Angol Fear, can you step away from Cassandra and Setsuka? You're making them nervous."

"Why?" asked Angol Fear, crossing her arms and looking slightly annoyed.

Cassandra and Setsuka pointed to her bosom. "Those spikes on your boobs are… rather intimidating," said the geisha.

"It's for defensive purposes."

Cassandra muttered under her breath, "More like OFFENSIVE purposes."

Algol ordered the people who weren't part of the cast to stand back. The guest characters were arguing on why they can't be in the picture while Zwei just stood off to one side and watched. Techincally, he wasn't part of the cast either so he had to sit this one out. But in the meanwhile, he was gesturing to Amy to smile. The gothic Lolita shook her head and mouth, "I can't smile."

Zwei brushed it off and mouthed, "Sure you can. You're not even trying and you're already giving up? Come on. Show me those vampire fangs Amy." Finally, Amy gave it a try and Zwei flinched. "Uhhh..."

"Hm?"

At that moment, Raphael noticed and he gasped, "Amy! What's wrong?"

"What do you mean father?"

"It looks like you're dying! I've never seen a more gruesome expression on your beautiful face! Are you in pain princess? Does something hurt?" Raphael asked with fatherly concern.

Amy turned away in a huff and glared at Zwei. This was all his fault. She was so going to get back at him for her sweet bun and this smile that had frightened her father. So she gave him a sly smile and batted her eyelashes. He'll fall into the web of love and she'll make sure that it hurts. Clueless on what Amy was thinking, Zwei gave her the thumbs up and mouthed, "Much better."

Algol returned his attention back to the group and shouted, "Everyone ready? Sophitia!"

The Greek mother blinked in surprise. She was standing perfectly still with a beautiful smile on her face and she arched an eyebrow at the Hero King. "Yes?"

"Can you get your kids out of the way?"

Sophitia sighed as she motioned for her kids to go and join her husband at a frilly table. Beside her, Cassandra grumbled, "Can we take the picture now?"

A few petals from the flower bower above the group drifted down and Ivy sneezed. "Let's hurry it up. Astaroth and Ashlotte needs to take their own pictures together." She narrowed her eyes at Algol. "You just want us in the picture so that you can sell this for more money."

Algol grinned and rubbed his hands. "It's going to be on the front covers of every magazine from here to Australia. We need to promote the Soul Calibur series so that one day… it'll be bigger and more successful than Street Fighter and Tekken!" His eyes sparkled as he dreamed of that day. "Anyway! Quiet! Let's get ready! Taki, Mitsurugi, are the cameras set?"

Taki set her camera on top of a table and did some quick hand symbols. Her and Mitsurugi cameras flashed blue quickly before fading back to normal and she replied, "It's ready." The two ran over to their spots and put on a fake smile as Algol also joined the group.

"Ok everyone. Quiet!"

They all heard the timer on the cameras ticked away and they all posed and plastered the brightest smile possible on their faces. Of course, like Amy, some smiles still needed alittle more effort. For example, Cervantes's evil smile of villainy would be enough to shatter a thousand mirrors. And Aeon's smile was a close second with his sharp fangs and beady reptilian eyes. Anyway, the camera ticked away until… "OWWWW!" Raphael shouted in pain when Zwei's puppy bit his leg. "Get this mongrel off my leg!"

CLICK. The cameras took the picture just as Raphael jumped up into the air with a pained expression (mixed with 10% anger, 5% shock, and 101% hate for dogs in general). Around him, everyone had also turned to see what was going on so this picture was basically a disaster.

Two minutes later…

After Zwei had recaptured his puppy and stepped quite a distance away so that the SCIV cast could have their picture, Algol shouted, "Ready? Quiet! Smile!" The cast adjusted their clothes and flashed another forced smile at the camera. All of a sudden…

"Squawk!"

Amy glanced at the dodo bird that was stepping on everyone's toes. "Dad, you missed one."

Raphael immediately drew his rapier and said, "No worries Amy! I shall kill it right now!"

Talim eyes widened and she glanced around for a solution. Spotting her bird, she whistled for it quietly. Alun was perched on her grandmother's shoulder but when it heard her call, it glanced over with its sharp falcon eyes and saw her mouth some instructions while pointing to Raphael. With a screech, it flapped over and attacked the vampire while Talim gave Yun-Seong some big puppy eyes. The young Korean sighed and shooed the dodo bird away to safety while Raphael had his face clawed by a big and deadly falcon. As he tried to bat away the bird, he stepped on Tira's foot and this caused her to fall backward and into the Azure knight.

Without a second thought, Nightmare quickly back-stepped out of the way and Tira fell to the ground. The pain caused her to go into gloomy mood and when she stood back up, she grabbed onto his shirt. "You moron! Why didn't you catch me!"

"Don't you dare, speak to the Azure Night- Hey! Stop that at once!" Tira screamed in rage and began clawing at him as he tried to push her away. "You're ruining my dress shirt and you're scratching up my armor! I just polished it!" Nightmare quickly added, "With darkness!"

"What?" Hwang gave the knight a confused glance.

Nightmare whipped out a bottle of 'Darkness' and said, "It's guaranteed to make any medieval suit of armour look brand new and evil. And it cost me $39.99."

The audience looked at the watches and cellphones to check the time and the guest characters began talking to each other. "I don't think the force is with them," commented wise Yoda.

Heihachi grunted, "These guys have more problems than my own family issues."

Link just shook his head and shrugged. "Heya ya ehya (This is going to take forever.)"

As Maxi watched the group trying to stop Tira from strangling Nightmare, he thought, "They're ruining this wedding party without my help… Nice!"

At last, when things settled down once again, everyone settled into their spots for pictures. "Wait! I need to put on some make-up to hide these hideous scratches!" shouted Raphael as he ran away to apply some.

"Wimp," grunted Mitsurugi as he crossed his arms. "Real men display their scars proudly and they do not… wear make-up." He puffed out his chest proudly.

Nearby, Siegfried also agreed and brushed the scar on his face. "Women find the scars to be very attractive. Right Hilde?" The princess smiled before pecking him on the cheek.

When Raphael returned with a flawless face covered in a professional layer of unnoticeable make-up, they readied themselves for the picture. For the third time. But the heavens seemed to have fun torturing the cast so the next cosmic joke was… Tira not smiling. Zasalamel sighed. "Tira, you need to smile for the picture."

Since she was in gloomy mood, she retorted, "You can smile into the camera but you can't make me do it." She narrowed her eyes when her group stepped alittle closer towards her. "Don't even think about it. I'll kill the next person to take another step and then I'll barbecue you and feed you to my crows. With ketchup."

Everyone turned green and the audience who were sitting at their tables said, "Ewww…."

Algol whipped out a notepad. "Minus 100 points for Team Draw since Tira refuses to smile."

Hearing that, Zasalamel furrowed his eyebrows and said, "Hold on for just a minute." He whipped out a magazine and began cutting out something. When he finished, he had some smiling paper lips from some unknown models and he said, "I'll just tape it onto her mouth."

"Try it and I'll break your arms," hissed Tira.

"Oooooohhhh. Fight! Fight! Fight!" chanted the audience.

Kilik sighed and said to Algol, "You should just let Ashlotte and Astaroth take their pictures together first. After a few hours when Tira's back in her jolly side, then you can take the pictures for the rest of the group."

Algol had to agree that the monk was right. So he shooed everyone away and said, "Well, you can all have an hour of free time before we get back to the main events. Lizardman! I need you, Voldo and your lizard groupie to start the music after the newlyweds finish their pictures!"

Walking towards the stage set right in the middle of the dance floor, Voldo began wringing his hands in worry. This was bad. Very very bad… After all these days of practicing, the lizards still… can't carry a tune to save their lives. What should he do? Oh Verrci, where are you? I need your guidance," thought Voldo. Climbing up on the stage, Voldo sat behind the piano and cracked his knuckles nervously. The lizards were all very excited to perform and the gleaming lanterns set on the ceiling of the tent illuminated their hopeful faces. Which was actually rather endearing.

The rest of the cast sat at their assigned frilly pink and white tables around the dance floor. At Raphael's table, Ivy picked up her spoon. "Hmm, very nice silverware they have here."

Cassandra and Sophitia were busy trying to wrestle the forks and knives away from Patroklos and Pyrrha while Rothion admired the nice lanterns and pink streamers. Setsuka was sitting beside them and she gave the young boy a stern look. "It's dangerous to play with things you aren't familiar with."

Patroklos grinned and grabbed her umbrella. "Can I play with this instead?" Before the geisha could say something, he opened it and his eyes sparkled with glee. "Woah! Neat! But why is it ripped?"

Heart racing, blood pressure soaring, head hurting… Setsuka looked at her umbrella and stuttered, "M-my um-umbre-umbrella… What happened to it!" She looked around frantically and stood up. Everyone was talking and chattering to each other and the loud din made her feel sick. "EVERYONE! BE QUIET!"

The noise immediately died down and at the picture side of the tent, Aglol gave her a thumbs up. "Thanks. Now, Astaroth, Ashlotte! Smile!" Mitsurugi and Taki sighed as they snapped a few more pictures.

"What's wrong Setsuka?" asked Cassandra as she shoved Patroklos down in his seat and handed her back her umbrella.

"Someone ruined my umbrella." Setsuka's eyes flashed dangerously and without a word, she pulled down the right side of her pink dress to ready herself for battle. The men in the audience drooled alittle but they knew that with the current mood she was in, she'd kill them faster than they can blink. Looking back and forth, she snarled, "Who did it! Tell me if you have any honor and I'll make your death a swift and painless one."

Nearby at Team Draw's table, Cervantes nervously pulled the piece of paper out of his nose and quickly threw it far… far… away. Unfortunately, his nosebleed continued and blood gushed out of his nose. "Eaugh!" Grabbing a napkin, he stuffed it back in while his teammates asked if he was alright.

Meanwhile, the person who got hit with that paper was… Mitsurugi. When he finished snapping the last picture, it struck his head and got stuck in his hair. Taki noticed and cringed. "You… have something in your hair Mitsurugi."

"Eh?" The samurai reached up and took down the bloody piece of paper. Unravelling it, he scowled at the blood and bogies on it. "What kind of sick joke is this?"

To his immense bad luck, Setsuka turned and when she saw the evidence, she lost it. "First you killed my master, and now you ruined the last thing he left me!" Her eyes flashed as she slowly unsheathed the blade hidden in the umbrella. "You shall feel the wrath of my master's blade!"

Mitsurugi quickly reached for his own sword just as she swept out of her seat and charged towards him like a demon while people quickly pulled in their chairs to make room for her. It was kinda hard to draw your sword while you're holding an expensive and heavy camera so with no choice, Mitsurug chucked it at her. Setsuka shouted, "Die!" She cut the camera in half and was about to unleash her fury on him, when all of a sudden, a ghost flew out of the destroyed camera.

Taki shouted, "No! I sealed a talented but evil cameraman ghost in that thing! Why did you break it?" Everyone looked at her questioningly and she said, "There was no other choice. I and Mitsurugi have no idea on how to use a camera."

Algol pulled at his hair. "Noooooo! All the footage is lost!" He quickly said to Taki, "Protect that last camera with your life Taki! The wedding videos of the future depend on it!"

She threw it at him and turned to the ghost. "I must exorcize the ghost. Everyone! Run for it!"

"No!" Algol gave a shrill whistle and his adoptive daughter and son quickly stood with him. "No one leaves the wedding tent until the party is over!"

"Are you insane?" shouted Seong-Mina. "If everyone dies, there's not going to be a party!"

Algol pointed the camera at her. "Don't make me zoom in on your bad side."

Xianghua poked Zasalamel and said, "Couldn't you… suck the ghost into your blackhole or something?"

"Couldn't your boyfriend use his holy stone to vanquish the ghost?" Zasalamel did not take his eyes off the menu he was currently looking at.

"That's what I'm trying to do!" Kilik shouted as he, Taki, and the Greek sisters battled the wailing evil spirit made up of black and putrid smoke. Tables got overturned, chairs got smashed and plates crashed as they chased after the spirit.

"This is all your fault," muttered Mitsurugi to Setsuka.

"I shall deal with you, after the wedding," hissed Setsuka.

Hilde shouted to her friend, "Cassandra! Be careful!"

"Ooof!" The greek girl fumbled with the skirt of her dress and groaned, "I can't fight properly with this outfit!" Before she knew it, the ghost hit her in the face and she stumbled backward. "Augh! Now you'll pay!" She clonked it with her holy shield while her sister sliced at its misty arms.

Sipping some tea, Ivy said, "Couldn't you just shorten the dress Cassandra?"

"A fine idea," agreed Raphael as he flipped through the menu.

Beside him, Yoshimitsu said, "I know what thou is thinking. Pervert." The manji clan that was sitting at the table behind them agreed with their leader and words such as, "Evil-doer, pervy vampire, dark lord of dark thoughts, etc" pervaded through the air.

Raphael shot the man and his group a dark look. "Thanks for your oh so valuable opinions."

Anyway, while the rest of the audience was screaming and shouting, the Soul Calibur cast seemed oblivious to the pandemonium. Perhaps it's because they're battle worn veterans but they had the utmost faith that the matter would be dealt with quickly and then the food would soon arrive. Maxi didn't really care since chaos was being wrecked on the wedding so he just chewed on some bubble gum and sat there quietly. Beside him, Amy was talking to Talim. "Why aren't you helping the battle? You are a holy priestess after all."

Talim dangled her legs back and forth as she looked at the deserts in the menu. "There's no wind in this tent. It's so stuffy in here too." She pulled at her dress and said, "I wish I was back in my old outfit."

"I agree with you child," said Ivy as she looked at her pink dress. "I can't believe I'm saying this but Nightmare was correct in saying that pink isn't my color."

Raphael flipped through the menu and said, "I agree. You two looked better in your old outfits. Those see through white pants and Ivy's… strings were interesting. And pink really does make you two look fat."

Yoshimitsu ducked when Raphael flew backward from Ivy's whip attack. "Thou are not only a pervert, thou is a big mouth idiot as well." And he shook his head sadly.

From the other table, Zasalamel said dryly, "It's not much of a surprise."

An explosion from one of Taki's ninja bomb made everyone look over so no one noticed when Kunpaeteku walked past and drop a pill of evilness into Talim and Siegfried's cup of water. He slyly walked away with a wicked grin on his face as he looked at Astaroth from afar. "That core will be mine…"

"Can you guys hurry up and catch the ghost already?" Tira said grumpily as she stabbed the table with her fork. "I'm hungry!"

"Quit whining, you're affecting my concentration," said Taki as she whipped out two ninja seals. "Sophitia, Cassandra, Kilik, back me up!"

"Dvapara-Yuga!" shouted Kilik, blinding everyone in the tent as his holy stone flashed. It also made the ghost whimper in pain as it stopped in its tracks and gain a solid body.

"Gods, grant me strength!" shouted Sophitia. Lightning cracked from the skies and it striked the ghost. Unfortunately, it also made the tent catch on fire as well as set off a giant crater into the wooden floor that was so painstakingly laid out. On the good side, the divine lightning stunned the ghost silly and it floated there with a dazed look.

"Ass of doom!" And Cassandra booted the ghost towards Taki who quickly absorbed the ghost into her seals.

"Good job everyone," said Taki as she held up the sealed paper. "With this, the wedding party can-"

No one heard a word she said since everyone was trying to run out of the burning tent while Algol was still persistent in blocking the way. "Hold on! I can fix this!"

"THEN HURRY UP ALREADY!"

He immediately pointed to Zasalamel. "Fix this and your team gets five hundred points!"

At the deal, Zasalamel snapped his fingers and it a shower of rain fell from the heavens and doused out the fire. To a lot of people's relief, the ten was waterproof. Unfortunately for the people that was standing right underneath the giant hole made by Sophitia's lightning bolt, they got soaked. Except for Setsuka since she quickly opened her damaged umbrella and shielded herself.

As for Mitsurugi… His lips were thin as he grabbed his ponytail and wringed the water out of his big ponytail. Without another word, he took off his tux shirt and stomped away.

Setsuka coughed, "That's karma."

Raphael gasped as he got hit with the cold water. Wiping his face, he gasped. "My make-up is running!"

Siegfried felt an urge to say something evil so he said, "Wow, you really are a girly vampire fencer aren't you?"

"Shut up, guy whose hair is even longer than Sophitia's," Raphael said triumphantly as he saw Siegfried flushed red.

"It's not longer than Sophitia's!" Siegfried was about to continue but then he shook his head. "Aurgh… my head hurts."

"Me too," said Talim as she hit her head a few times. When she glanced over at Raphael. She felt something from deep inside her heart. Pure… utter… rage… as she remembered everything he's said to her. One sentence stood out the most. She's flatter than an ironing board… ironing board… ironing board…

"Hey, are you alright?" asked Zwei as he tapped her on the shoulder. "Your face is rather pale."

Next to him, Amy commented, "And you look like you wanted to kill someone…"

Talim tilted her head in puzzlement. "Umm… well, it's just that-"

Algol clapped his hands for their attention. "Alright everyone! I assume you're all hungry so go to the buffet table at the back and eat as much as you want! And then we'll start the dancing later." He smirked to himself. When people have a full stomach, they were bound to be more compliant and perhaps, they'll shut their mouths and stop complaining about what a disaster this had been so far. Ordering Zasalamel to repair the roof and make the lanterns glow brighter, he offered Team Draw another one hundred points.

The crowd cheered loudly and quickly made their way to the buffet table. Once they were there, Hwang and Rock sighed as they grabbed the salads. For the sake of their bodies, they must be strong and resist. "Hey guys! Do you want some chocolate cake?" asked Nightmare, who as always, was unsensitive to other's feelings.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Raphael was stroking his chin and looking at Zasalamel. With an extra 600 points, are they in the lead? "Hey Algol!" hollered Raphael. How many points do each team have?<p>

The Hero King nudged his daughter who whipped out a calculator while Artcturus took out a notepad with all the details for his sister. When Raphael stared, she said, "What? I'm good with math." After a few minutes of furiously punching the calculator, she said cheerfully, "You have twelve people on your team so you should have 4032 points but since Maxi did nothing, you have 3696 points." Before Raphael can say something, she motioned towards a table and they sat down. Doing a few more calculations, she said, "One person gets two points every hour. But it seem that Kilik and Talim were unable to tell us what they were doing while trying to complete their mission so we'll have to suspect that they went vacationing and goofed off."

"What?" Flustered, Raphael said, "But what if they really were working hard?"

"Better guilty than innocent," was Kami's short reply. "So I'm going to take off half of their points, which is 336. So now you have 3360 points." Taping her chin, Kami stuck out her tongue in thought. "Setsuka and Amy finished early so they didn't work the whole week, more points must be taken off."

"You're taking off points because they finished early!" shouted Raphael angrily. "What kind of madness is this!"

Kami said, "Why didn't they help out with their teammate's missions?" Poor Kami didn't know that the geisha and vampirette did try to help but since they lost their memories, they will now lose the points as well. "So I'm taking off another one hundred points. You now have 3260 points."

Raphael pulled at his hair as he rested his elbows on the table. "Are we finished yet?"

Kami shook her head. "Nope. Ivy spent some time to go shopping so I'll minus 50 points. But the fact that Cassandra beat up Nightmare by playing tennis made me laugh so I'll give you 33 points. Ah yes, but you lost twenty points when this first started so…your total points is… 3223 points."

"How much does Team Draw have?" asked the worried Frenchman.

After another ten minutes…

"They were supposed to have… 4368 points," said Kami as she scribbled on her brother's notebook. "But since Cervantes got hospitalized I'll have to take away 100 points, Yun-Seong wimped out and jumped out of a restaurant window so that's negative 200 points, Xianghua kept falling asleep so that's minus 75 points, Voldo and Lizardman goofed off by chasing after Yoshimitsu for abit so let's take off another 100. Oh, and Taki went shopping so Team Draw lose another 50 points." Quickly calculating the new number, she said calmly, "They have 3843. But since my father gave them 600 points, added with the bonus 20 points when this first started, they now have 4463 points."

Raphael mentally calculated the difference and groaned. Those guys were ahead of his team by 1240 points! Algol noticed the depressed look on his face and said, "Well, you might as well enjoy the party and worry about the second event later."

Raphael bit the inside of his cheek grumpily. "You have a point. And I can still hope that they'll do something to cost them more points so I might as well enjoy my time here." And with a swish of his emerald green cape, he swept towards the buffet table and rudely pushed people aside. "Make way peasants! I, the great Raphael Sorel am coming through!"

* * *

><p>"Wow, that's alot of food," gushed Talim as she scooted up beside Mitsurugi. They were both jostling for food at the buffet table and the samurai was getting rather annoyed as the wedding guests pushed them back and forth. He heard a few curses behind him as some rude dude said some gibberish about peasants but he didn't pay much attention to it. He was more focused on the giant dish of prepared sushi that was waiting for him.<p>

Ten minutes later…

The Japanese samurai finally lost it when someone grabbed the last piece of sushi. "Prepare to die..."

Talim heard this and she quickly pulled on the sleeves of his dress shirt. "Mitsurugi, what's wrong?"

He glanced at the empty plate of sushi and grunted, "I've been waiting in line for HALF AN HOUR and someone, dares to take the last piece of sushi from me."

"That's it?" Talim smiled cheerfully and gave him her plate that had two delicious and fresh salmon rolls. "Oh, and please don't resort to violence here. After all, this is my stage and this is a place of peace and beauty."

Mitsurugi coughed, "It's not so great after Raphael chopped down all the trees and killed all of the dodo birds. And we're going to be stuck in this tent for the most part."

Talim's eyes welled up with tears and Yun-Seong noticed. Since Japan and Korea was at war, this also gave him the reason to start a fight. "Hey! Do you want to start something?"

"Yea. I want to start on my sushi," said Mitsurugi dryly.

"It-it's alright guys," said Talim, rubbing her eyes. "Co-come on, let's just enjoy the food." And she reached over for a piece of golden roasted bird.

"Good choice," said Raphael as he popped up in front of her and cut into the line. "Mind if I cut in? After all, I, the great Raphael Sorel, do not wait in line like these peasants."

"Who are you calling peasants?" said Cassandra threateningly, from five spots behind.

Talim pouted. "Why do you have to cut in front of me?"

He laughed. "Because you're the only one who would let me."

She was about to argue that point but then she just sighed in defeat. There wasn't any point in making a fuss over a trivial thing like this. Like the wind says, it's better to let go and be at peace. So she took in a deep breath and reached for the roasted bird and popped it on her plate.

Raphael popped some shish-kabob in his mouth and said, "Could you grab me some of that roasted dodo bird as well?"

Talim's eyes widened. "Wha-what?"

He nodded and swallowed. "I've decided that there were simply too many dead dodo birds to bury so I told the cooks to cook them."

At that, Talim screamed and chucked her plate across the table. Incidentally, this hit Zasalamel in the face as he reached for some fried rice on the other side. Next, the priestess ran off crying about the sad fates of the dodo birds. "You're a horrible man! It's all your fault that they're now going to be extinct! I hate-" No, she was a priestess of the wind. She wasn't allowed to hate anyone. So with that, she changed her sentence. "I like you less than a windless day!"

Zasalamel wiped the food of his face and said, "You know Sorel... I don't think she was meant to be on your team."

Raphael popped some more pieces of honey roasted dodo bird in his mouth. "What makes you think that?"

"One doesn't need to read the future to see that," Zasalamel said dryly.

"Well, you don't need any more people," retorted Raphael. "After all, you already have one more person than my team.

His white teeth flashed as he grinned. "That doesn't mean I don't want more people Sorel."

"Don't even think about taking Talim away from me." Realizing how awkward that sounded, he quickly corrected himself. "Ack! I mean don't you even think about building up your powerbase with one of my people!" Heaping food onto his plate, he stormed away.

Zasalamel stroked his chin thoughtfully and looked over at Yun-Seong who was comforting the crying priestess with some ice cream from his plate. "Hmmm... building up my powerbase huh?" He then glanced over at Xianghua who was trying to spoonfeed some yogurt into Kilik's mouth. A brilliant plan flashed though his mind and he smiled. "That should work..."

At the table, Taki was still filming since she was the only camera person left and Xianghua had went to grab the ninja a dish of food. Charged with the sacred duty of recording this one in a lifetime event, she kept vigilant until… "Hey Taki!" said Maxi as he sat down beside her.

"You're at the wrong table," Taki said crisply. She narrowed her eyes at him and said, "If it wasn't for the fact that I'm recording this, you'd be in a world of hurt. I haven't forgotten about what happened at the shopping mall."

The sea dandy brushed back his dyed blonde hair and leaned back in his chair. "It's too bad you didn't have your camera back then. Because you and Ivy looked like an upturned turtle when I left."

A shadow passed over him and Ivy smiled coldly down at him. "Well aren't we cheeky? This'll be fun…" Maxi gulped and before he knew it, she dumped a dish of steaming hot crab soup on him.

"Aaaaaaaaaeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhh!"

Shura glanced up in boredom when Maxi ran screaming past her and out of the tent. Looking at her watch, she pursed her lips in annoyance. When was the dance going to start? That would be the perfect moment to assassinate the golem and have some fun.

Kunpaeteku was thinking the same thing from the other side of the tent as he sat there with some cupcakes on his dish. (Yes, he's a sugar addict). Stroking his creepy goatee, he glanced over at Siegfried who looked slightly disoriented as he waited in line for the food. Nearby, the wind priestess was talking to Yun-Seong and she also looked alittle tired. "Good… they'll turn evil in no time," Kunpaetku whispered quietly.

* * *

><p>"Here Kalana, I got you some hot miso soup," said Edgemaster, offering Talim's grandmother the tasty soup dish as he sat down at the Elder's Table.<p>

She was currently talking to Hilde's old father and she turned around with a smile. "Why, thank you very much Edgemaster."

"No no," hooted Olcadan, sitting down with two plates in his hand. "That soup lacks proteins! Here, I've brought you a nice steak. I've cut it up for you myself."

"Thank you very much Olcadan," said the wind elder as she took the plate from his. Picking up a fork, she was about to eat when Edgemaster spoke up.

"Eat my soup first Kalana."

"No, eat my steak first!"

Kalana sighed as the two began bickering with each other. When Talim's dad and mom walked past them, she gave the dishes to them instead. Getting up, she bumped into Seong-Mina's dad who was hurrying over to the table with an armful of food.

"Oh Kalana! Help me with these will you? It seems I've chewed off more than I can bite," said an embarrassed Korean as he plopped the dishes down on the frilly table and in the process, he accidentally knocked over the vase of colorful roses that served as the centerpiece.

* * *

><p>Astaroth and Ashlotte sat at their own special table with the two priests since that was the only family the beautiful doll had. But they were having a nice time despite the chaotic and sinister plans that were happening without their knowledge. But for now, the two lovebirds were content to sit there and enjoy each other's presence while everyone finished eating. After that, they would cut the cake and then… dance with each other.<p>

"Ashlotte… you are such a beautiful doll," said Astaroth as he spooned up some dark rich petroleum oil from her soup bowl and fed it to her.

She smiled and blinked at him with her pale purple eyes. "It's strange. You have somehow managed to override my programming and instead of killing you like I was supposed to, I have done the exact opposite."

"Love works in strange ways." He put a hand on her and said, "From now on, we'll always be together. And if any maggot dares to take you away from me, I shall rip them asunder and or ask Tira to barbecue them and feed it to her ravens."

She merely smiled once more and said, "A doll and golem… we make a strange pair."

"No my doll. We make the perfect pair."

Peeking his head back in the tent, Maxi scowled at the loving pair. "We'll see about that."

Shura sneaked a look and sipped her wine. "We'll see about that."

Kunapeteku took a big bite out of his girly pink cupcake and said, "We'll chee afout hat."

* * *

><p>Darkwings13: Due to my extremely long absence, I must personally come and apologize to you all. But I've recently been hit with a very... serious case of writer's block. :(<p>

Added with the last weeks of homework, err... it's been rather difficult to write. But I shall try to overcome it and upload the next chapter when I get my writing inspirations back. But in the meantime, I shall actually be drawing the artcovers for my story and rediting my other past stories. Anyway, to thank the people who have reviewed and favourited my story, I will tell Algol to reserve some special dishes for you people. Thanks for reading! :D

By the way, there's a poll on my profile so please... vote! I need the votes readers! It's for something I'm planning in the future of this story but with only 8 people so far who voted, it's not going to work out!

* * *

><p>From outside the tent, a woman wearing a dark cloak quickly folded a paper airplane and shot it towards the Hero King before vanishing into the night.<p>

At the table, Algol noticed it and when he caught it, he immediately opened it and began reading. "Hmmm... I see." Standing up, he weaved his way through the crowd and cut into the line. Looking at the list, he began mumbling to himself, "For those who reviewed last chapters... DamageTH gets the really expensive passion fruit soufflé with mango." He snatched the dish out of Sophitia's hands and ignored her protests.

"That was for my children!"

As he walked down the line, he grabbed a small dish of exotic mixed berries on a sweet chocolate cake that was touched with sweet cream. "This one is for ThalieXVII..."

Amy pouted as Algol took that dish.

Algol continued reading the list as he snatched a dish of sweet strawberry parfait added with a small amount of syrup imported all the way from Quebec. "This one is for diegofu and..." he pushed Zasalamel out of the way to reach for the next dish. "Ah, this one is for FuriousMick98." And he grabbed a slice of coconut flavored pie with a edible coconut decoration and whip creameon top. "Last but not least, a sundae full of ripe peaches and mangoes added with two scoops of fancy vanilla ice cream for mardeeo."

With his hands full of the expensive deserts, he looked around for the distinguished guests to give them their food.


	35. The Second Trial Begins

"You know father… you can have some of my steak if you want," Bangoo said comfortingly as his father stared at his own dish with a deep look of despair.

Since Rock wanted to lose weight, everything on his dish had less then 100 calories. Now, since Rock was a dedicated huntsman who loved meat, this was proving to be pure torture for him as he was forced to nibble on celery sticks while the people around the wedding tent swirled around with heaps of delicious and fattening dishes. His eyes were actually glued to Algol who had a handful of deserts as the Hero King went to give the stuff to some distinguished people over at a certain table awhile ago. Giving his son a pat on the back, Rock shook his head. "It's alright Bangoo. Your father is strong. He can do this!" And the man started shoveling the salad on his dish into his mouth at an unhealthy pace.

Beside them, Cervantes burped loudly as he downed a glass of fiery whisky. "I think your dad is losing it if he's talking in third person."

Ivy strolled past their table and muttered, "He's still less crazy than you."

Meanwhile, Yun-Seong and Seong-Mina were feeling sorry for their fellow Korean as well. "You know Hwang… some chocolate cake wouldn't kill you," Yun-Seong said reassuringly, taking away Nightmare's fifth plate of chocolate cake and slowly pushing it towards Hwang.

Seong-Mina nodded in agreement. "Come on, relax alittle. It's a wedding party after all."

But Hwang glared at them. "No. As a man that has been well disciplined, I refuse to fall for such weaknesses." He grabbed his carrot and bit it savagely but in his heart…. It was crying for that piece of fattening chocolate cake.

At this moment, Algol walked past and said, "You two still have to eat that wedding cake when it gets cut."

"What!"

Hwang and Rock hugged each other and began crying since they really wanted their hot and healthy bodies back. "We don't want to eat the cake! It has like a thousand calories!"

Algol just snorted at their complaints and he was about to continue on his way when he remembered something. "Hey Zasalamel, bring Kratos back. He still needs to attend this wedding party."

Zasalamel lowered the menu and said dryly, "You really want to risk him killing everyone? Again?"

"Who told you?"

Zasalamel pointed to Taki's video camera. "That should be pretty self-explanatory once I checked to see how the video was going. He's back in Astral Chaos and it would be a good idea for him to stay there for awhile."

Algol tapped on his chin but then he noticed the giant punch bowl. Smiling to himself, he shoot out a purple bubble and blasted the ice sculpture of two swans that decorated it. Ice rained down on people's head and a few people glared at him. Turning back to Zasalamel, he said, "Just freeze him again and use the ice sculpture as a decorative for the punch bowl." Zasalamel stared at him for a few seconds before sighing tiredly.

Two minutes later…

Cassandra shuddered when she strolled past the punch bowl. "Ew… who came up with the idea of using an angry Kratos ice sculpture to decorate the punch bowl?"

At the same time, Mitsurugi headed to the punch bowl to get some punch. But when he saw the frozen Kratos, his eyes narrowed in on the fact that the guy's sandled feet was in the drink. "What the hell..." With a look of annoyance, he walked away to see if there was any more sushi.

Sophitia and her hubby, Rothion, also went to get some punch but when they saw the statue, Rothion shook his head. "That's just unhygienic."

Amy popped up beside them and a rare grin of mischievousness spread across her face when she heard what Rothion said. She ladled some into a cup and ran off to find Zwei and give him the punch.

* * *

><p>At the Elders's Table…<p>

Kalana was talking to Seong-Mina's old father about something when she noticed that her granddaughter and the man with long blond hair, Siegfried, seemed alittle off. She discreetly nudged Edgemaster and said, "Do you sense something strange about my sweet Talim and that young man, Siegfried?"

Edgemaster stroked his white beard and looked at them carefully. "Yes…"

The two elders stared as Siegfried gulped down some red wine and got up on the table. His face was red as he shouted, "I! Am the hic! Great chosen of Soul Calibur! It was hic- only due to luck that Raphael hic! Beat me and got Soul Calibur!"

"Get off my table!" shouted a random invitee as he and his group of friends shouted at the knight.

Yoshimitsu and Kilik had ran over to restrain their friend and the Manji leader said, "Calmeth down Siegfried! Thou are acting stupid and thou are embarrassing thy girlfriend!" With his wooden arm, he pointed over to Hilde who was trying to hide behind a menu.

Nearby, Talim was throwing a tantrum while Cassandra and Setsuka were trying to calm her down. "The wind doesn't love me!"

Kalana gasped over at her table and so did Talim's parents.

Cassandra tried to wrestle away the fork the wind priestess was stabbing into a table. "Calm down girl! What's gotten into you?"

Talim merely sobbed once more, "The wind doesn't love me!"

Setsuka sighed. "What made you think that?"

"I told the wind to curse Raphael since he was mean to me but he's still fine!" Talim pointed to Raphael who was still gobbling down some roasted dodo bird and drinking his fancy wine.

Setsuka arched an eyebrow at the priestess. She noticed a bit of chocolate near Talim's chin and then her sharp eyes snapped over to the rum chocolate Raphael had on his desert dish. "Wait a minute… did you eat that chocolate on Raphael's dish?"

Talim hiccoughed before answering. "I wanted to take revenge by eating his favorite chocolate."

Cassandra and Setsuka smacked their heads. "That's rum chocolate!"

Ashlotte strolled past them in her wedding dress. "Talim has an alcohol tolerance of 0.0003%. The effects of the 1 oz of rum in that chocolate must have caused this erratic and violent behavior." The three of them looked over as the heard someone scream something about a butter knife."

"I'm going to kill Raphael with a butter knife and regain my title as the best swordsman!" shouted Siegfried as he tried to stagger over to the vampire while Yoshimitus and Kilik did their best to restrain him. And… Hilde was still trying to hide behind her menu.

Her old father noticed and he said to his daughter, "This is the man you're in love with?"

Hilde sighed. "I don't know what's gotten into him."

From a distance, Kunpaeteku grinned cheekily and drank his wine. Ah… turning the priestess and the crystal knight evil was certainly amusing. With another evil grin, he finished off his girly pink cupcake. Everything was working well… but then he noticed the way Edgemaster and Kalana were watching the events suspiciously and he pursed his lips. Taking out his walkie talkie, he said, "I think it's time for some old people to take their nap."

* * *

><p>"I think their souls have been infected with evil," said Edgemaster.<p>

Olcadan eavesdropped on the conversation and rolled his eyes. "I think they're drunk."

Kalana crossed her arms and whipped out her fan. "No. The wind around them is strange. It's true that while they're slightly intoxicated, their actions come from the darkness of their hearts." She stood up and said thinly, "We must purify them."

All of a sudden, the lights turned off inside the tent and everyone screamed.

"What's going on!" shouted Xianghua fearfully as she reached around blindly for Kilik. When she heard his voice, her arms shot forward and she hugged him. "Kilik! I'm so scared!"

"Thou is hugging the wrong man!" And Yoshimitsu struggled push away Xianghua.

"Oh! Sorry!" She thought she heard Kilik and hugged another person. "Is this Kilik."

"No. This is Zasalamel," said the immortal man dryly.

"Pyrrha! Patroklos! Where are you!" cried Sophitia as she tried to find her children in the darkness while pushing people aside at the same time. She thought she found Pyrrha and she held her against her tightly. "Don't worry Pyrrha, your mother is here. Where's your brother?"

"Get your big breasts out of my face," said Amy, struggling to push Sophitia away.

Nearby, Setsuka coughed when a kid collided into her. Recognizing his voice, she quirked an eyebrow. "Patroklos?"

"I want my mommy! Wahhh!" sobbed the young Greek boy as he latched onto her for comfort.

"Everyone, quiet!" shouted Algol. He held up two giant glowing purple bubbles and the tent was awashed in purple light. Everyone ooohhhhed at the mesmerizing bubbles and the Hero King sighed tiredly before telling his son and daughter to check out the electric lights that was supposed to be activating the lanterns above them.

Kami climbed on her brother's shoulders and peered at one with interest. "Hmm, someone cut the wires daddy!"

Algol frowned. "It looks like someone wants to ruin the wedding party."

All eyes zoomed in on Maxi. The sea dandy shrugged and said, "I would love to ruin this wedding party but I'm in the middle of finishing my cake."

"You stole my cake!" Nightmare shouted out randomly.

"Dude… you took all the chocolate ones. Mine is strawberry flavoured."

"Oh." Nightmare let out a whistle and melted into the crowd.

"What are we going to do now?" asked Kilik.

Algol grinned cheekily. "The dance and then the cake!" He shot out more bubbles from his hand and they floated above the crowd's head. "Ok everyone, these bubbles of mine will be providing the light for the rest of the night. But be careful, you'll get vaporized if you touch them." At that, the people cringed and looked at the bubbles fearfully.

* * *

><p>While the people were arguing with Alogl on whether he could make it safer, no one noticed that Olcadan, Edgemaster and Kalana were being threatened. One of Kunpaeteku's men said quietly, "Come with us quietly."<p>

"Or what?" asked the three with disinterest.

The man struggled to come up with a sufficient lie. "Uhh... if you don't come quietly... we'll blow up this tent and with everyone in it!"

Edgemaster said gruffly, "Who's behind this?"

"You don't need to know. Now just follow me or else my master who's in here will punch the button to blow up this tent."

"Wouldn't that kill him," asked Olcadan with disbelief.

"Uhhh…" The man looked confused for a moment before saying, "It's an evil bomb that kills only good people. He'll survive it."

"Right…" drawled the two old mimic masters.

Kalana narrowed her eyes. Right now, the wise thing to do would be to follow his orders and wait for their opportunity to fight back. Closing her white fan, she sighed tiredly. "Let's get going then."

The man nodded and scratched at his heavily tattooed arm. "Ok, walk behind me in a single profile. After that, I shall tie you up and then I'll tie the two old man together."

Edgemaster and Olcadan shot each other a dark look. They weren't sure what was worse. Being ordered around by an idiot or getting tied up to together.

* * *

><p>Back to Algol…<p>

He snapped his fingers and his purple orbs started flashing disco lights.

"Woah…" gawked Raphael. But then he grinned and smoothed back his hair. The girls around him squealed with delight when he flashed them a charming smile. "Well then… let us dance."

Algol snapped his fingers at Lizardman/Aeon, his lizard groupie and Voldo. "Alright, now it's your turn to do your part for the wedding. Hurry and start the music!"

Sweat poured like rain down Voldo's forehead and he struggled to move forward to the stage. A crowd had already gathered around the giant dance floor and the crazy lights from Algol's orbs were flashing wildly. Nervously, he put one foot in front. Then the next. And then the next. And then the next one.

"Hurry it up!" snapped Tira. She was still in her gloomy mood and she was annoyed at the fact that Nightmare ate all the chocolate cake so she took her anger out on poor Voldo. Voldo gave her an annoyed hiss before slowly moving forward once more.

Ashlotte blinked and commented, "Voldo is moving at 0.00000000000531m/s. At this rate, the time required for him to step foot on stage and start the music is calculated to be ten hours, forty three minutes, twenty eight seconds and ten milliseconds."

"No problem." Zasalamel snapped his fingers and the entire gang picked up the hissing man and tossed him on stage.

"Alright! Let's begin!" shouted Algol.

Voldo froze and his heart stopped as the lizards opened their mouths. Instinctively, he clamped his hands over his ears.

Raphael was about to perform some really fancy moves but when the high pitch soundwaves hit his ears, he toppled over and fell flat on his face. Everyone else clamped their hands over their ears and Zwei hollered, "Hey! My dog can't take this anymore!" Ein howled in pain and Zwei tried to cover his puppy's ears.

Around the tent, the wine glasses shattered and pieces of sharp glasses flew danergoulsy in all direction. Nightmare slapped away some of the glasses before shouting, "This is the most painful form of torture I've ever heard! Shut up before I drown you in darkness!" But none of the lizards could hear him and the Azure Knight hissed, "That's it!" He stormed over but then he got knocked back by Cervantes who was trying to roll his wheel chair as far as possible from the stage. "Ahhh!"

Sophita's eyes flashed as she kicked the falling knight away to protect the giant wedding cake. "Don't… come near the cake." Next, she plastered a beautiful smile on her face and clasped her hands together. "This cake was made with my love after all. If anything happens to it…" A vein popped out from her forehead and Nightmare sweat dropped. "I will strike you with lightning."

Back to the matter at hand, Astaroth roared angrily, "What are you maggots doing! You're ruining my wedding party!"

"Wait!" Everyone looked up in surprise when Kunpaeteku hopped on stage and smiled at them. "Give me a few seconds."

The curtains closed and Voldo gave the evil priest a wary glance. The rest of the lizards blinked at him in confusion but Aeon stared at him with hate. This was the dude that turned him into a lizard. When the priest reached for him, Aeon bit him on the arm.

The crowd were silent when a scream penetrated the air.

"LET GO OF MY ARM LIZARD BRAINS!"

They heard a lot of hissing and swears (mostly on the priest's part) and after awhile, it became really quiet. Until finally, the curtains opened and everyone's mouth dropped open. Voldo was sitting behind some drums and a few of the lizards had also taken up instruments such as guitars and an electric piano. Kunpaeteku had a black eye but he forced a smile on his face as he said, "Well now, do we have any suggestions for songs?"

"And have our ears bleed again?" said Mitsurugi gruffly.

The man grinned and shook his head. "It'll be different this time…" He pointed to Talim and threw her a book of songs. "Now my cute little priestess, why don't you pick a song?"

"Err…" Talim opened the book and began scanning the songs. She finally noticed one the had the word 'wind' in it and she chirped, "Can I hear 'Wind it Up' by Gwen Stefani?"

Hilde nudged the young girl. "Talim, it's not what you think."

"But it has the word 'wind' in it," Talim said innocently.

Everyone around the priestess sighed and they turned their attention to the stage when all of a sudden, Aeon began singing. IN GWEN STEFANI'S VOICE!

_High on the hill with the lonely goatherd_

_Layee odelayee odelay heehoo_

_Yodel back with the girl and goatherd_

_Layee odelayee odeloh_

_Wind it up!_

_Wind it up!_

_Wind it up!_

_Yodelay yodelay yodeloh_

_(Yeah)_

Talim perked up in confusion and Hilde sighed. "I told you…"

"At least this sounds better than what they were singing last time," Ivy pointed out as she tapped her feet.

Cassandra shook her head. "Anything sounds better then being attacked by high frequency sound waves."

_This is the key that makes us wind up_

_When the beat comes on the girls all line up_

_And the boys all look but no they can't touch_

_But the girls want to know why boys like us so much_

_They like the way we dance, they like the way we work_

_They like the way the L.A.M.B. is going 'cross my shirt_

_They like the way my pants, it compliments my shape_

_(She's crazy, right?)_

_They like the way we react every time we hear the_

_Every time the bass bang realize it calls your name_

_Let the beat wind you up and don't stop till your time is up_

_Get in line now_

Talim turned red and realized that it wasn't what she thought it was. She quickly held up a hand and said, "I-I'm done! Please choose another song for the evening!"

Voldo nodded and held out a hand for the audience to pick a song. They heard a lot of suggestions but then Yun-Seong and Seong-Mina shouted, "Let's hear Gangnam style by PSY! After all, K-pop is awesome!"

Voldo stared at them for a second before shaking his head. He pointed to Astaroth and Ashlotte and hissed, "Shshshsh hshshsh hshshsh hhshhhhh (Since this is your wedding, you two should dance and pick the song first)."

Ashlotte looked up at Astaroth and asked what song he wanted to hear. He just shrugged and said that she should pick. So the mechanical doll closed her eyes and said, "According to statistics, the most romantic song ever is 'My Heart Will Go On' by Celine Dion. Let's dance to that one, Astaroth."

He nodded and Voldo waved at Aeon to start singing. And again, everyone was taken back when they heard Celine Dion's voice come out of Aeon's fanged mouth as the rest of the lizards began playing the soft and gentle music.

_Every night in my dreams_

_I see you, I feel you_

_That is how I know you, go on_

_Far across the distance_

_And spaces between us_

_You have come to show you, go on_

The song was very romantic and everyone watched as Ashlotte and Astaroth stepped onto the dance floor. With a swish of expensive white silk, they began dancing as Astaroth twirled his wife on the dance floor.

Algol wiped away a manly tear and made his bubbles glow softly with pink light. Next, he nudged Taki. "Make sure you record this in perfect details. It's going to be the best part of the wedding video." She nodded and continued filming.

Slowly, more people joined them on the dance floor as the song continued.

_Near, far, wherever you are_

_I believe that the heart does go on_

_Once more you open the door_

_And you're here in my heart_

_And my heart will go on and on_

Kilik smiled as Xianghua rested her head on his chest and he asked, "Xianghua… are you… happy dancing with me?"

She gave him a pretty smile. "As long as I'm with you, I'm always happy."

"Really?" Kilik hesitated for a moment before saying, "But… I still think that you being with me… isn't the right thing. After all, I-"

Xianghua shook her head at him. "Stop blaming yourself for the past and look towards the future Kilik. And I told you already, I'll always be by your side."

He smiled at her and said, "I don't deserve you Xianghua. But I'm glad, that I've met you."

She laughed as they twirled around on the dance floor. "Oh Kilik…"

Nearby, Hilde said to Siegfried, "Siegfried… you don't know how to dance, do you?"

Siegfried nodded with an embarrassed look on his face as he accidentally stepped on her foot again. With a shake of her head, Hilde stopped and guided his hand to her waist. Slowly, she began instructing him and they began moving to the gentle music.

She noted that he seemed alittle distracted and she asked him what was wrong. Nervously, Siegfried replied, "I don't think your dad likes me." He looked away and said understandingly, "I… I am a common mercenary after all. I don't deserve to be with a princess. And… I was also the Azure Knight."

Hilde shushed him and looked at him firmly in the eyes. "You are a strong and brave man Siegfried and I trust you. You would never hurt me and you'll never be the Azure Knight again. You are Siegfried and only Siegfried. Not Nightmare."

They both turned and laughed when they saw Tira dragging Nightmare to the dance floor.

"The Azure Knight does not dance!"

"No! You're dancing with me and that's final Nighty!"

* * *

><p><em>Love can touch us one time<em>

_And last for a lifetime_

_And never let go till we're gone_

_Love was when I loved you_

_One true time I hold you_

_In my life we'll always go on_

"Zwei, would you like to dance?"

Zwei turned around and his looked at Amy with surprise before shaking his head. "I don't know how to dance."

"I can teach you," Amy said quietly. She was secretly planning to step on his foot with her sharp high heels to get back at him for making her smile that hideous smile. Sure it wasn't exactly his fault but still, he was the one who kept pushing her to do it.

Zwei shook his head a few more times before he finally gave in. As they stepped onto the dance floor, he gulped as they got into positions and began dancing.

Two seconds later…

Amy was starting to regret this as he stepped on her foot more then she did.

Raphael was watching his daughter dance with Zwei and he was angry enough to spit fire. How dare that loser stepped onto his beautiful daughter's feet! Imbecile! If he didn't know how to dance, then he shouldn't step onto the dance floor in the first place! Raphael looked over when he saw Nightmare running away from Tira.

"I don't want to dance the 'Dance of Death' even if that's your fighting style!"

"But Nighty! It's soooo romantic! It's the hidden part of my battle style that requires me to have a partner! Come back here, Nighty!"

* * *

><p><em>Near, far, wherever you are<em>

_I believe that the heart does go on_

_Once more you open the door_

_And you're here in my heart_

_And my heart will go on and on_

Sophitia looked at her husband happily as they danced. "I'm sorry that I'm not with you enough, Rothion."

He shushed her and kissed her on the forehead. "I know that you needed to follow Hephaestus. I understand… I only have one complaint though…"

Sophitia rested her head on her husband's and asked, "What is it?"

"Can you wear you SCIV 2p more than your first outfit more often?

She looked up at him and said thinly, "Why? You're not jealous are you? You do trust me, right?"

Rothion gulped and quickly nodded. "Of course! But… your 2P outfit has more armor on it so it'll be better protection! I just don't want to see you get hurt, of course."

"Oh." Sophitia quickly smiled in understanding. "Alright."

Rothion thought to himself, "That was a close one." After awhile, he added, "I will always love you, Sophitia. Even when we're not together, you're always in my heart."

Sophitia felt her heart thump and she closed her eyes in contentment. "I as well… Our family is always in my heart."

* * *

><p>Talim watched as her parents danced around on the dance floor. With a wistful sigh, she looked over at Yun-Seong. If only… he would ask her to dance with him.<p>

Zasalamel noticed the longing glances that the priestess kept giving to Yun-Seong and he smiled. Perfect. He turned and saw that Xianghua was happily dancing with Kilik and he grinned. Perfect! Strolling over to Yun-Seong, he said, "Yun-Seong, I need you to do something for the team."

Yun-Seong wasn't really listening because he was trying to summon the courage to ask Seong-Mina to dance with him. But first, he was trying to find her in the crowd. "Yea?"

"I need you to-"

"Oh! There she is!" And he dashed off to see Seong-Mina.

Zasalamel tried to chase after the more agile man and he cursed. "Yun-Seong! Yun-Seong! Get back here! No! Not that way!" But he couldn't get past the dancing couples to chase after the Korean so Zasalamel stood there grumpily. He felt someone tug on his pants and he quickly snapped, "What are you doing!"

Patroklos and Pyrrha ran off giggling and Cassandra ran up to him. "Hey! Have you seen my niece and nephew? I'm supposed to be watching them while my sister dances."

Zasalamel rolled his eyes and pointed to the two who had just crawled under a table. Cassandra said a quick thank you before chasing after the kids. After a few minutes, he noticed that the kids stole his wallet. With no choice, he chased after them as well. "I fear for the future if those two were to join the cast," he said to himself as he searched for the two kids.

* * *

><p>"Hey Mina!"<p>

She turned around and said, "Eh? Yun-Seong? What's up?"

Yun-Seong took in a deep breath before asking quietly, "Will you… errr…"

"Yea? What is it?" She put a hand over her ear and said, "Come on, you'll have to speak louder!"

"Would you… like to dance with me?" Yun-Seong quickly said, "If you don't want to then that's fine."

She laughed cheerfully and put her hands on her hips. "Eh? When did you know how to dance?"

Yun-Seong scratched the back of his head. "I don't really dance but, I thought it might be fun you know."

She shrugged and said, "Sure, why not. After that big meal, I need to do something to burn off those calories."

At the table, Rock and Hwang shouted encouragingly, "Go dance! And burn off those fat or else you'll become like us!"

She laughed once more and grabbed onto Yun-Seong's hand. "Ok ok! Come on, let's get going meat head!"

Yun-Seong joked back, "Let's see how bad you'll look at dancing, granny!"

Talim looked over and when she saw Yun-Seong ask Seong-Mina to dance, she felt her heart grow heavy with disappointment. Her eyes were downcast as she fiddled with her sun and moon medallion. Maybe… she wasn't pretty enough to catch his attention. And she wasn't exactly great at anything either…

"Talim, what's wrong?"

Talim looked up as Setsuka sat down beside her and looked at the young girl worriedly. Talim quickly shook her head and smiled. "I… I was just looking around for a dance partner."

Setsuka smiled and said, "I noticed that you were looking at Yun-Seong." The young girl blushed and denied it. Setsuka dropped the subject and offered her a hand. "I may not be the one you want to dance with, but let's just have fun alright?"

Talim giggled and chirped, "Thanks for cheering me up."

"No no no no."

The two female looked as Algol shook his fingers at them. "No, I'll be the one choosing your dance partners. Oh, and remember to smile! This must look good for the wedding video."

"Huh?"

* * *

><p>Raphael was in a rather foul mood. Zwei had stepped on his daughter's foot about twenty times already. She seemed to be stepping on his foot a few times as well but she only got him a few times. "Come on Amy… squish his toes…"<p>

"What are you doing?" asked Mitsurugi, sitting down beside the vampire lord.

"Cheering Amy to step on Zwei's foot."

Mitsurugi said dryly, "You're the weirdest guy I've ever met."

"Hey! You two!"

The two males looked up as Algol dragged Setsuka and Talim over. Coming to a stop, Algol said, "Setsuka, you dance with Mitsurugi. Raphael, you dance with Talim."

"WHAT!"

The four immediately refused.

Talim pointed to Raphael and vehemently shook her head. "I don't want to dance with a dodo bird killer!"

At the insult of being called a dodo bird killer, he retorted, "I don't want to dance with an ironing board!"

Setsuka drew her sword out slightly and looked more ready for battle than a romantic dance. "I don't want to dance with the one who killed my master!"

"I don't even know how to dance!" shouted Mitsurugi.

Algol didn't bat an eye as he whipped out their contracts with Soul Calibur. "Line 3472 says that you must do what's best to help Soul Calibur. Or else you'll be sued for a billion dollars." Tucking the contract away, he crossed his arms and waited for them to start.

Reluctantly, the four split into pairs and headed for the dance floor since they didn't want to be sued for a billion dollars. Cuz then they would have to sell their souls to Soul Edge or something for that money.

When he returned to Taki side, the ninja said, "Is there a reason why you paired those guys up?"

Algol chuckled snidely. "You see... those guys hate each other. So when they're around each other, funny things happened. And when funny things happens, the readers- I mean the watchers, like it. Therefore, funny equals money!"

Taki gave him a disapproving frown before returning to filming.

* * *

><p>Setsuka eyes burned as Mitsurugi pretended to put his hand on her waist and they tried to siddle away from Algol's point of view. To the samurai, she hissed, "Touch me and your arm falls off."<p>

"Woman… I don't even want to touch you. I just want to fight you."

Setsuka looked surprised. "You want to fight me as well?"

Mitsurugi grunted, "It's not what you think. I just want to fight someone strong and believe me, when I fought your master; I admit that he's strong. He was a worthy opponent and I'm interested to see if you've reached his level." Hesitantly, the samurai averted his eyes. "In some way, I regret killing him since you're now all alone in this world."

Setsuka stared at him for a moment before she shook herself and looked away. "Well then. Once things have settled down, let us have our duel."

"Setsuka! Mitsurugi! Smile!" shouted Algol from afar as he nudged Taki to film in their direction.

The geisha and samurai forced a smile on their face as the ninja emotionlessly turned the camera in their direction. "I'm surprised you two haven't killed each other."

* * *

><p>"Why… are we always stuck with each other," pouted Talim.<p>

"How should I know," retorted Raphael as they reluctantly danced. "Why don't you ask your wind?"

She stuck her bottom lip out at him but then her eyes widened when she saw Yun-Seong and Seong-Mina dance past them. A slightly sad expression crossed her face and Raphael seemed to notice. "Talim, you like him, don't you?" Raphael saw her blush in response and he said, "You know, you could tell him how you feel."

Talim was slightly taken back by the way he was speaking to her. What was with the sudden change in attitude? Raphael could see that she was puzzled by his words and he said, "I hate your wimpiness."

At that, Talim pouted at him. "Excuse me?"

Raphael sighed in exasperation. "Even though you're like an ironing board, you are still a very sweet girl. I've been around enough angry, manipulative, and backstabbing people in our world and let me tell you, your personality is a bit of fresh air." He thought to himself, "And it's fun to boss you around..."

Talim looked at him in surprise. "But… we never seem to get along."

He let go of her waist and pointed to her moon and sun medallion. "That's because we're complete opposites. Our personalities conflict with each other." He rolled his eyes as he added, "Your crying and wimpiness doesn't help either." But then his expression softened slightly. "But sometimes… your selflessness and compassion is quite attractive you know."

Talim went super red and she stammered, "Wh-why did you act so unfriendly towards me then? Oh!" She puffed out her cheeks. "And you keep calling me an ironing board."

Raphael sighed. "Fine, I'll stop calling you that. And I'm sometimes mean towards you because you're a bit of a burden and I hate looking after you when I was your baby-sitter. And whenever you're with me, something bad usually happens." He smirked as she got angry. "But… have you noticed I never really picked on you? You usually hate me for doing the things you don't like."

"Like killing all the trees and dodo birds," Talim said curtly. "Oh, and your words always seem to make me cry." But then she said shyly, "Except for this time…"

He nodded and grinned as they continued to dance. "Do you remember my quote when I defeated you in SCIII?"

"Yea. You said, 'It's time for your nap, little one'."

"Have I ever said something so nice to any of my other opponents?"

Talim realized that it was true and she smiled at him. "I… I guess not. And your opening quote wasn't very mean to me either… compared to Cassandra, Kilik, Nightmare and Siegfried."

"Talim! Raphael! Smile! Oh... you're already smiling." Algol waved at Taki to film them.

"Hmm, interesting. You haven't made her cry today," Taki noted with slight surprise.

Talim smiled while Raphael grinned and the two continued dancing.

* * *

><p><em>You're here, there's nothing I fear<em>

_And I know that my heart will go on_

_We'll stay forever this way_

_You are safe in my heart_

_And my heart will go on and on_

As the song drew to a close, everyone stopped with a rather happy expression. Except for Amy since her feet were sore from getting stepped on so often.

But then…

"Alright, let's have some fun!" Shura drew her sharp katanas and swiftly aimed for Astaroth and Ashlotte. Everyone knew that the last moments of the dance was the most loving and romantic moment and this was proven to be true as the golem leaned down to kiss his bride.

"ASTAROTH! WATCH OUT!" shouted everyone in the room (except for Maxi and Kunpaeteku).

Ashlotte's pale violet eyes widened and she quickly stepped forward. Silence issued through the room as they saw the sharp katanas sink deep into her body.

"No…" Sophitia said softly, with a horrified look on her face.

Zasalamel held up a hand. "Wait. Ashlotte is a mechanical doll people. She's not going to die from such a wound. I doubt that she even feels it."

Everyone sighed in relief before drawing out their own weapons. "STEP AWAY FROM THE NEWELYWEDS SHURA!"

Shura struggled to pull her swords out but then Ashlotte looked up and said in her usual manner, "1.335 seconds too slow. Her mechanical arms shot forward and she said, "Rocket Punch."

"What?" Everyone looked in confusion but then they stepped back as Ashlotte just punched Shura with her inhuman strength. The woman flew across the tent and she accidentally shattered the punch bowl when she collided with it. And freeing the… frozen war god, Kratos, once more.

Zasalamel shot Algol a dirty look. "I told you that it was a stupid idea."

What made things worse was…

"Aha, it's time to how my true form!" laughed Kunpaeteku.

Mitsurugi said dryly, "So… what am I supposed to be looking at?" The evil priest grinned and pointed to lizardman and his groupie of lizards. By now, Mitsurugi scoffed. "They're still the same as always."

But then giant white wings sprouted from Aeon's back and everyone stepped backwards. Kunpaeteku laughed triumphantly and shouted, "Not anymore! Each lizard now has a unique ability! They're like those colorful Yoshis in Mario!"

"You fiend!" shouted Rock in horror.

"How could you do something like that to Aeon!" cried Xianghua and Seong-Mina. The rest of Team Draw shouted the same thing as well. To them, lizardman had become some kind of weird pet that they had all grown rather fond of.

In anger, Nightmare took out Soul Edge and shouted, "I shall burn you and feed your soul to Soul Edge! And then my crazy girlfriend will further barbeque your corpse and feed it to her ravens! With ketchup!" After a moment's hesitation, he shouted, "And darkness!"

"What?" asked Hwang with confusion.

Nightmare whipped out another random bottle labeled 'Darkness' and began explaining. "This company has made some kind of barbeque sauce that tastes fantastic! And it only costs me $19.99."

Kunpaeteku grinned and rubbed his hands together. "With my army of monsters, not even the Azure Nightmare can stop me. Come Aeon, let's show them how strong you are!"

With a snarl, Aeon felt the drug in his body made him lose control and he leaped towards Nightmare. Nightmare readied himself but then Kratos shoved the Azure Knight over and roared to the audience, "I shall kill all of-"

But he was interrupted by Aeon who had tackled into him and the lizard spread his wings and flapped around with a struggling god of war. They flew onto the stage and the curtains dropped down with a crash. After a few minutes of screaming and such, the crowd stepped back and gasped as Aeon walked out with two axes and his mouth was all red.

"Oh… my… god…" Ivy said as she took a step back. Even her Valentine shivered and it twined around her fearfully.

"HE ATE KRATOS!" screamed everyone as Aeon bared his fangs at them.

"That's not all," Kunpaeteku said evilly. He snapped his fingers and Voldo, Talim and Siegfried dropped to the ground and they were seized by convulsions.

With a pained cry, Voldo slashed at Kunpaeteku before rolling off the stage in pain and his team rushed over to him. "Voldo!"

"Siegfried!" Nearby, Hilde cradled him in her arms and shouted, "Look at me! Siegfried! What's wrong?!"

"Augh… raghhhhh! Get away from me Hilde!" screamed the knight as he pushed her away.

"Talim!" cried Setsuka, Sophitia, Ivy and Cassandra as they rushed over to her.

The wind priestess screamed and Raphael had to pin her arms down. "Someone! I can use alittle help over h- Owwwwwwwww!" He shouted in pain as she bit his hand. Since he was a vampire, he was used to biting people. Not the other way around.

Maxi was starting to feel sorry for the newlyweds, his team, and the other team. He wrestled with his conscience for a second before running to the giant wedding cake. "Everyone! Get out of here! I gave Tira special flour that can cause an explosion when the cake's baked!"

"You what!" screamed Tira.

Hwang and Rock perked up. "Does that mean we don't have to eat a piece of cake?"

"JUST GET OUT OF HERE! I'M GOING TO MAKE THE TENT EXPLODE AND KILL KUNPAETEKU BEFORE HE CAN HURT ANYMORE PEOPLE!" And Maxi began pushing the cart with the giant cake towards the stunned priest.

"Oh… $% #!" Algol swore and said, "Everyone! Evacuate the tent!"

With a wrench, Raphael tore his hand out of Talim's biting mouth and shouted to the rest of his team, "Grab Siegfried and let's go!" They all struggled to get at the deranged knight and Ivy managed to tie him up with her whip before the rest of the team helped dragged him out of there. Raphael had to throw the priestess over his shoulder and he yelled at her, "Stop hitting my back when I'm trying to save you!"

But evil Talim just dug her manicured pink nails (all the females had to get them for the wedding) into his back.

"Aaeeeeehhhhhhhh!"

The rest of the females gave him disapproving looks as Raphael screamed. "She's not in her right mind!"

For his team, Zasalamel shouted, "Grab your things, help Voldo, Hwang and Rock roll out of here and let's go!"

"What about Aeon!" protested Yun-Seong to Zasalamel.

They both turned when Kunpaeteku snarled, "I'm not going down like this! Shura! Aeon!"

The two hurled themselves at Astaroth and the golem snarled, "Out of my way maggots!"

But then Ashlotte shoved him and her two old priests out of the way and said, "Astaroth. Take them and get out of here. You only have a 23.5% of survival when the tent explodes. I shall remain behind and ensure that Kunpaeteku is dead."

"No! I'm not leaving you!" shouted Astaroth.

"Go. I have a 78.35% of survival." She looked at him pleadingly. "Please."

With tearful eyes, the golem had no choice but to grab the two priests and run out of the tent. Ashlotte grabbed onto Shura and Aeon with her inhuman arms and restrained them as she said to Maxi, "Hurry. I shall protect you with my mechanical body when the explosion takes place."

Maxi grinned. "Thanks."

* * *

><p>From far away, everyone dropped to the ground when the tent exploded in a firework of flames, sparks and hot fire.<p>

Under the tree the old trio were tied to, Edgemaster and Olcadan looked up and they looked at the bodyguard with dark eyes. "Deal's over."

Kalana also narrowed her eyes at the bodyguard. "Wind." The ropes around their torsos were cut to pieces and the three masters stepped toward the trembling bodyguard. Kalana flipped open her fan and said quietly, "You should have known this was going to happen when you threatened us."

The man squeaked, "Sorry?"

Olcadan hooted, "If you make us pie, then maybe we'll forgive you."

"Uh… what flavor?"

Edgemaster snapped, "Now's not the time. Let's head back and see how the rest of the youngsters are doing."

* * *

><p>Astaroth watched as the tent went up in flames and he dropped to his knees. "My Ashlotte…" He pounded the ground and cried. "My love!"<p>

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh !"

Everyone looked up as Maxi went flying up… and up… and up… from the tent. And then he dropped to the ground with a thunderous crash. His pants were on fire and Raphael and Zasalamel quickly chucked the dandy into the giant lake of the Distant Marsh Stage. When he wasn't on fire anymore, Maxi crawled out and panted, "Don't… worry… Ashlotte's alive."

He held up one of her mechanical arm and everyone screamed, "That doesn't look like she's alive!"

But then the arm started moving and it pointed up. Everyone looked up and they saw Kunpaeteku being carried by Aeon as well as Ashlotte who looked unconscious. The man grinned and hollered, "If you want her back, give me Astaroth's core!"

Astaroth gnashed his teeth. "Damn you maggot!"

"Hyah yah! (We'll help)!" shouted Link as he and the other guests characters rushed forward.

Darth Vader said, "He has killed Kratos, a fellow guest character. We must take revenge and show him the power of the force."

Heihachi rolled his shoulders and said, "Hmph, can't an old man enjoy a wedding? But whatever, I'll just test my strength out on that giant lizard."

Spawn and Yoda just readied themselves quietly and Link knocked an arrow into his bow. At this time, Algol showed up and said, "You guests need to help me evacuate the people. And I can't let you people fight. Kratos's company just sued me for ten million dollars for having their main guy killed!"

"Yah hya ya (I'll leave after this)." And Link shot an arrow at Kunpaeteku. Algol sighed and guessed that he might as well helped so he fired a bubble at him as well.

This resulted in another explosion and Astaroth screamed, "What are you maggots doing!"

Kunpaetku swore as the doll broke when he used her as a shield. He whistled to the controlled lizardmens and the ones that could fly to quickly soar after the falling pieces as they fell over Soul Land.

Things were now getting drastic so Algol shouted, "This is the second trial! Retrieve all of Ashlott'e body parts and you'll get two hundred points for each part added with the points you've accumulated so far!"

"Does her finger count?" asked Tira as she picked up one.

Algol facepalmed. "Yes! Now just get going!"

"Wait!" Raphael had to pull his hand away from Talim and Siegfried who were snapping their mouths at him while being restrained by the rest of the team. "My team isn't exactly doing very well here!"

"Excuse me." Zasalamel flicked away the fireflies buzzing around him before pointing to his Hwang, Rock, Cervantes and Voldo. "You have no reason to complain. Two of my people are obese, one is handicapped, and one is also going insane." Next, he remembered Taki and said, "And she's in charge of filming!"

"You're ahead of my team by 1240 points!"

Algol snapped his fingers at them. "Can you people get going!" He watched as they ran off before turning to Astaroth. "You, come with me. I'm going to buff you up and get you the perfect axe for the final confrontation with Kunpaeteku to get your love back."

The two priests added, "We shall aid you as well."

Astaroth thanked them before looking at the disappearing evil priest. He cracked his knuckles and said, "Let the second trial begin. And let me end it when the time comes."

"Hey! Where are my students!" shouted Edgemaster as he, Olcadan, and Kalana showed up.

Algol and the rest of the guest characters pointed in random direction and the three sighed. Turning to Talim's parents, Hilde's old father, and Seong-Mina's old father, Kalana said, "Stay here while we handle this." And the three old masters ran off.

Everyone there was about to agree but then they noticed alot of hungry evil lizardmen inching towards them. At that pandemonium reigned supreme and everyone began screaming. Algol grabbed onto Darth Vader and said hastily, "How fast can your ship come here to rescue everyone?"

"With the power of the dark side... about an hour."

Algol released him and shouted, "Ok everyone, just stay behind me, my son, Kami, Astaroth and the rest of the guests characters if you want to live."

Scherazade and Angol Fear scowled. "What about us?"

Algol added, "It's great if you want to help out ladies. Anyway people, stay behind us!"

The people obeyed immediately. They even shoved the hero King forward and into the jaws of the snapping giant lizards and Algol shouted, "What is wrong with you people!"

* * *

><p>Raphael's Points: 3223 + 200 (right arm)= 3423. Contributed by Maxi.<p>

Zasalamel's Points: 4463 + 200 (finger)=4663. Contributed by Tira.

* * *

><p>An hour later…<p>

Algol hollered, "Alright! Darth Vader's airship is here! Get in quickly people!" He suddenly remembered something and whipped out a list. "Ok! First thing first! Darkwings13 says that due to popular requests for an update, she has done her best to get this chapter uploaded even though she has writer's block. So she apologizes if this chapter doesn't meet your expectation."

"Daddy! When can we leave!" shouted Kami as she smacked away another lizard with her club.

Hold on darling!" Algol scanned the paper and quickly said, "To the reviewers for the last chapter, you guys get to go into the escape ship of Darth Vader first! And Darkwings13 says thanks for all the support and she's wants to say sorry to Annie who checked up on this story every day to wait for an update. If you guys wonder about what Darkwings13 is up to, please check up on her profile. She's currently editing her stories and-"

"HURRY IT UP! WE DON'T WANT TO DIE!" screamed the hysterical people.

Algol shushed them and said hastily, "Ok! Darkwings13 wants to say that she will definitely finish this story, even if there's a zombie apocalypse. Anyway, let's move on to the list of those who gets first dig for going into the escape airship. Keyboardsaurus, come on in and enjoy a plate of healthy sushi! InsaneRaven13, I have heard about your fear of nipple spikes and I've chosen a room for you that is the furthest away from Angol Fear. For you, DarkVampireOfTheNight, you have room that has plenty of bat furniture and I hope you'll enjoy it since you seem to live vampires."

He grabbed a water bottle from someone and chugged it down thirstily since his mouth was dry. Finished, he chucked the bottle and hit a lizard in the eyes. Clearing his throat, he continued. "Mardeeo, since you like the peaches, mangoes and vanilla ice cream desert, you'll get another one once you get onto the escape ship, hope you'll like it. For ThalieXVII, you get a rare poster of Raphael with his autograph on it. DemonDanteElric, you get a free bottle of 'Darkness' and a gift card for more darkness items for you and your friend. To rachefoz, glad that you like the story and she gives you a hard book copy of this story that you can read while waiting for the evacuation here to finish. To Annie, you get a giant poster of the whole cast in Calibur World. Last but not least, to Lizzy, you'll get an authentic and baby lizardman plushie that can actually breathe fire."

Finished, Algol breathed in deeply for air. "Finally..."

"Dad! We can't hold the lizards back much longer!" shouted Arcturus as he kicked another lizard away.

Algol waved his arms and the chosen guests quickly ran into the ship. Once they were safe, he said to the rest of the audience, "Ok people, line up in an orderly fashion and-"

But they all trampled over him as they got into the ship. Stampede style.


	36. Good Guys Gone Bad

"Welcome back. I am Algol, the current spokesperson and for today, your news reporter." Algol pushed the helicopter's door opened and the cameraman pointed his camera down. "As you can see, Soul Land is closed to due to rampaging lizards that are intent on devouring you. Yes, they will even eat your clothes. Except for spiky stuff…" Algol chuckled as he thought about the lizards that ran away from Angol Fear's spike boobs.

Snapping out of his thoughts, he continued with the news. "Anyway, the two teams are furiously chasing after the lizards to retrieve Ashlotte's body parts and they are running into lots of trouble. We shall connect the camera's networks that are already in place and you viewers can see what's happening to them. As for the guests who were invited to the wedding, most of them have been safely transported out of there by Darth's Vader spaceship. For those who have been eaten, let us have a moment of silence for them."

Algol closed his eyes. But before someone could even count to three, he quickly resumed the news. "Anyway, due to a series of unfortunate events, we're being sued by Kratos's company since Aeon ate him. We're also low on funds so please bear with us as we may run in difficulties. We've also received news that Siegfried and Talim had turned to the dark side and things are getting ugly. This is Algol, the Hero King bringing you Soul Calibur news live here at Soul Land. You may now see what the cast has been going through."

* * *

><p>"Thou ate my arm! Spit it out at once! At once I say!" Yoshimitsu continued chasing after the lizard that currently had his wooden arm in its mouth. Yoshimitsu, Ivy, Maxi and Setsuka were currently at the Battle of the Strait stage (Mitsurugi's stage in SCIII). As they leaped from boat to boat to try and get Yoshimitsu's arm back, one of the lizard hissed gleefully and stuck his tongue out at them as the boat rides continued moving.<p>

"What kind of ride is this?!" shouted Maxi as flaming arrows whizzed by his head.

Ivy slipped on some water and her back hit the bulwark. Bracing herself, she said, "We're supposed to be in those mini boats but the lizards are hoping all over the stage decorations!"

"These are some realist stage decorations," Setsuka commented as she elegantly leaped onto the boat and joined them. With a sigh, she said, "Do you think it was a good idea to split up like this? I know that means we'll cover more ground but still…"

Yoshimitsu landed beside them as he used his sword as a helicopter. "We can't allow Zasalamel to obtaineth Ashlotte's body parts. Tis a risky decision but we must split up."

"Where's your arm?" asked Maxi.

Yoshimitsu pointed to the red waters. The lizards had formed some kind of a swimming circle of defense and they laughed as they circled the main lizard who had Yoshimitsu's wooden arm and Ashlotte's leg. For some reason, they were swimming in formation and they were actually doing synchronized swimming.

"Those lizards are girlying up my stage." Mitsurugi landed on the large boat next to them and he twirled his katana in his hands. He glared at them and said, "That leg is ours."

"Hey hey hey! Wait up for us!" Cervantes hollered as he, a tied up Voldo, and Taki sailed towards them in a mini boat ride. "What are you people doing, standing on those boat decorations?" asked the pirate as they came near.

Mitsurugi grunted, "I can't fight if I'm jammed in a baby boat like that." With that, he threw off his shirt and doved into the waters while he bit on his sword.

Setsuka shouted, "I will not be outclassed!" She wasn't really set on her vengeance anymore but she was determined to honor her master's memories by being being better than Mitsurugi. Determination blazed in her eyes and she said, "Master! Today is the day I show him the swimming skills you've taught me besides my fighting skills!" She immediately jumped into the waters and chased after him as he headed for the lizards.

Maxi began to bite his nails as the lizards headed for the two like sharks that just sensed blood. "I don't know if I should call them stupid or just really brave."

"Let's go after them!" Ivy used her whip to lash onto Cervantes's mini boat and with a groan, she began pulling it towards them. "Guys! Give me a hand!"

Yoshimitsu only had one hand to help but he grabbed onto her whip and helped her pull. Maxi joined in and the three used all of their muscles to pull the boat towards them.

"Cervantes! Do something!" Taki shouted as she paddled backwards at ninja speed.

The tug of war continued back and forth as the two groups fought for the miniboat until the dreaded pirate had enough. In his wheelchair, Cervantes drew out his swords. "Take this!"

Before Cervantes could fire his pistol sword, Yoshimitsu's wooden arm came flying out of nowhere and it clonked him on the head and knocked his sword into the waters. Yoshimitsu grabbed his wooden arm as it bounced over to him and he shouted to Setsuka, "Thank thee for retrieving my wooden arm. I shall cometh over there and aid thee soon!"

Setsuka gave a curt nod before returning her attention to the swarming lizards. When Yoshimitsu snapped his wooden arm back on, he leaped into the air and hovered above Voldo and Cervantes by spinning his sword around like a helicopter. "Evil-doer, you will fall!"

Cervantes snapped, "We're trying to get Ashlotte' damn leg back as well you know!"

"You're still evil-doers and you will fall!" And he landed on the pirate and the boat rocked back and forth.

"We're coming!" Ivy and Maxi leaped into the boat as they pulled it near to them and now, everyone was fighting each other as they were crammed into the mini boat.

At this moment, Voldo broke out of the ropes and Taki shouted, "Everyone watch out! He's not mentally stable!"

"When was he ever mentally stable?" Maxi asked. For that rude question, Voldo swiped at his head with his katar and a lock of black hair drifted down to the waters. Everyone stopped moving for a second as Maxi's jaw dropped open with shock and his hair slowly drifted away from him.

"My… hair." His eyes burned with rage and he shouted, "You will feel the sting!"

As Maxi fought Voldo, Ivy shrieked in pain when Cervantes's heavy wheelchair rolled over her foot. "You cur!"

Cervantes grinned and rolled it back and said, "Didn't you read the tag?" He pointed to the sticker inside the boat. "It said priority seating for seniors, pregnant women and disabled people and I fit into two of those categories."

Ivy smiled wickedly. "Is that so? Well…" She stabbed her sword down at him. "You also fit into the immortal category so it won't matter if you drown!" But she missed when Cervantes rolled back and her sword punctured a hole into the boat.

"What have you done?!" screamed Cervantes as he used his hat to scoop the water and throw it over the side. "We're all going to drown now! Augh!" Just then, a lizard swam up to the boat and it grabbed the pirate and dragged him overboard.

Taki dispatched one of the lizard and said, "Perhaps now's the time to work together to avoid being eaten. Augh!" Her back hit the wheelchair and she shrugged. "Since Cervantes has fallen, let's get rid of his wheelchair for more room."

Mitsurugi was swimming around and trying to chase after the lizard that had Ashlotte's leg when all of a sudden, a wheelchair flew towards him out of nowhere. "What the hell is wrong with you people these days?!" Those were his last words before the chair hit him and he sunk like a rock.

* * *

><p>"What in the world is wrong with you Talim?" Kilik asked in concern as the priestess sat on top of the destroyed watch tower of the Xiwei Siege Ruins stage (Mitsurugi and Xianghua's stage in SCII).<p>

Dangling her legs over the edge, Talim nibbled on some pink cotton candy and looked down at the people. Lizards were flying around the place and she was currently guarding Ashlotte's left leg. With a sigh, she said, "Please stop bothering me. If you leave right now, I shall be merciful and spare you."

Raphael and Zasalamel couldn't help but burst out laughing. The two men were clapping each other on the back despite the fact that they hated each other and both were obviously not taking Talim's words seriously.

Tira was in gloomy mood and she hissed, "I liked it better when you were a goodie goodie two shoes. Listen here wench, give me the leg or you'll-"

Talim snapped her fingers and trash, garbage, dirt, and other stuff flew into Tira's face. Taking another bite of cotton candy, Talim smiled sweetly. "I'm sorry, did you say something Tira?"

"Kilik, this is really bad." Xianghua turned to her boyfriend and gestured to their surroundings. "My stage is chock full of broken stuff since the place was destroyed by the Chinese emperor. Imagine the havoc Talim could wreck if she use the wind here."

Beside him, Amy spoke up. "Why don't we head inside the castle then?"

"The gate's locked." Zasalamel jerked his head towards the castle in the background.

Above them, Talim giggled. "Not only that, it's just a cardboard cut-out."

The group turned around as the wind priestess used the wind to knock down the cardboard cut-out of the castle that was behind the gates. With a stone-faced look, Zasalamel said to Raphael, "That was a cardboard cut-out?"

Raphael shrugged and said with some annoyance, "I didn't know what I was supposed to do with this stage in the first place. It's like a junkyard. So I didn't want to waste money on building a Chinese castle in the background. This is more like a tourist attraction spot than an amusement ride."

Zasalamel looked at the random tumbleweed that rolled past them as well as the trash that was tangled in it. "You could do some cleaning up around here before you call it a tourist attraction."

Tira wiped at the dirt on her clothes and gave Raphael a dirty look. "Thanks to you, that priestess is able to use the trash around here as a deadly weapon."

Nearby, Zwei was filming since he was given the task by the Hero King. Apparently, he had to prove himself by doing something for the community and filming this was supposed to prove his loyalty and sincerity. With a wry frown, he kicked away a pop can. "This place is a dump." His puppy, Ein, agreed with him as it played with the can.

Talim looked up as her pet bird landed on her shoulder. "Alun?" The falcon rustled its feather and Talim began talking to it.

Amy noticed and she nudged the group. "Here's our chance. If we hurry, we can scale the building before she notice."

"What about those flying lizards?" asked Xianghua.

Amy looked up and then she looked at the trash around them. "I have a plan."

One of the lizards growled when it saw Zasalamel, Kilik and Raphael furiously running towards the tower. With a hiss, it and its other lizard friends soared towards them but then pop cans hit them in the face as Amy, Tira and Xianghua started chucking the garbage at them. "Let the trash war… begin!" shouted Xianghua.

"Not so fast." Talim kicked her leg back and forth cheerfully before saying, "Oh winddddddd…"

"Augh!" Raphael, Zasalamel and Kilik braced themselves as a whirlwind of trash hit their faces and the stuff clung to their clothes. It felt like they were fighting their way through a storm (of trash) and their knees buckled.

"I always knew that she had potential." Zasalamel spat out some dirt and stuck his scythe in the ground to keep his place.

"Ooof!" Raphael swiped at the plastic bag that engulfed his head. "Get this thing off me!"

"I'll show you the way of the Ling-Sheng Su!" Kilik deftly twirled his staff and batted away all the garbage with his skills.

Talim smiled innocently. "Alunnnnn…" Her falcon screeched and it swooped down to attack Kilik. The monk cried out at the sharp talons and he backpedaled away.

Zasalamel looked over at Raphael while covering his face and he thought to himself, "Wait a minute… I can teleport!"

Raphael swore when the scythe wielder teleported over to the bottom of the tower and began climbing it. "I can teleport too you know!"

Talim squeaked when the rickety tower shook and she leaned over to see the two men climbing up the thing like deranged monkeys. "What are you doing?!"

"We're getting that leg!" shouted Raphael and Zasalamel at the same time. Raphael also added, "And you're going to be grounded when I reach you Talim!"

Talim immediately pouted. "Only my parents and my grandma can ground me!" She threw the cotton candy bag into Raphael's face and when Zasalamel reached up for her, she used Ashlotte's heavy leg and smacked away his hand. With a bright smile, she leaped off the tower before performing a few rolls through the air and landed gracefully on her feet.

"She's getting away!" growled gloomy Tira. "Get her!"

Amy, Xianghua, Kilik and her ravens started chasing after Talim but the wind priestess just giggled. "Wind!"

Another whirlwind of trash hit the group and Kilik choked out, "Talim! This is wrong!"

"Of course it is. I'm lit-ter-ing." Talim threw away a candy wrapper that hit Zasalamel in the eyes as it flew towards him.

Using the others as a shield, Zwei continued filming and he said dryly, "If Talim is this hard to defeat, imagine what the other group is doing while confronting Siegfried."

* * *

><p>At the Jyurakudai Villa stage (Setsuka's stage in SCIII), the cherry blossoms peacefully fell down and the Japanese restaurant there was currently closed. However… a few people were ruining the beauty of the night as they stood on the stage.<p>

"Behold… you see before you the true knight of darkness!" Siegfried laughed evilly as he brandished Ashlotte's left arm.

"Nonsense! I am the true knight of darkness!" Nightmare roared as he faced off Siegfried. Behind him, his fan group- I mean the Korean trio and Rock, cheered.

"Yea! You tell him Nightmare!"

"Show him who's the boss!"

"Darkness! Yea! You go man!"

"Silence!" Hilde slammed the butt of her spear down and pointed it at Siegfried. "Siegfried! You are not a knight of darkness! Whatever spell you're under, snap out of it and give us Ashlotte's arm!"

Sophitia clasped her hands to her chest. "Siegfried, listen to your girlfriend and stop this madness."

Cassandra groaned and ran a hand through her hair. "What's the matter with those guys? Did someone slip something in their drink or something?"

"Perhaps it's voodoo," Rock said wisely. "In the new world, there have been a few cases and I myself have once vanquished such a evil sorcerer."

"How'd you do it?" Yun-Seong asked curiously.

"Bangoo."

"Eh?"

"Enough talk!" Siegfried struck the ground with his sword and the lizards crawled up the stage and then up the pillars. Their beady eyes and flickering red tongues chilled the warriors and Siegfried laughed. "Now, you shall all be devoured by the darkness!"

"Stop stealing my lines pretty boy!" Nightmare shouted angrily. "I am the Azure Knight! The knight of darkness! Not you!"

"Not anymore! I am the knight of darkness now!"

"No I am!"

"No! I am!"

"I am!"

"You're just a hunk of junk!"

"You're just a knight who spends more time on his hair than his swordplay!"

Siegfried gasped. "Take that back!"

Nightmare grinned. "Make me!"

"As you wish." Siegfried smiled and said, "Alright guys, it's time for dinner."

Cassandra, Sophitia, Hilde, Yun-Seong, Seong-Mina, Hwang, and Rock glared at Nightmare. "Thanks for opening your big fat mouth."

Nightmare rolled his eyes them before turning back to Siegfried. "Those lizards can't eat me. I'm made out of pure metal." To emphasize the point, he proudly struck out his dark armored chest.

Siegfried gave his arch-nemesis a bored look before giving a short whistle. With a loud roar, Aeon smashed through the roof and shook off some cherry blossom petals before launching a huge fireball at Nightmare. Who had to run away while screaming his head off because if his body of metal got melted, then he was doomed. With a triumphant laugh, Siegfried said, "I'll use your helmet as a pot or something once Aeon has melted you to a puddle Nightmare."

"Curse you pretty boy!" shouted Nightmare as he ran around the stage while ducking the fireballs being launched his way.

Hilde, Sophitia and Cassandra backed away nervously as the lizards inched towards the three. Flustered, Cassandra pointed to Rock and Hwang. "You should eat those guys first. They're bigger!"

The two glared at her. "Well, we're made up of fat so you three beautiful ladies would obviously be a better choice in eating healthy."

"Guys! Now is not the time to act stupid and bicker!" Seong-Mina scolded them as the group got surrounded by lizards. Except for Nightmare who's running around in circles as Aeon chased after him.

Hwang and Rock agreed with her and they took out a bottle of Red Rhino. "You're right. We shall do our best to fight back even if we're fat."

"What is that?" asked Yun-Seong, looking at the strange energy drink.

Rock held up the bottle proudly. "I made a stronger energy drink than Red Bull and I called it Red Rhino. At first, I was going to call it 'Bangoo' but my son didn't like the idea so I decided against it."

"Uhhh…. Ok," said everyone except for Hwang.

The older Korean man popped open the cap and said, "Rock made me try this awhile ago and it does boost our strength and speed but unfortunately, it makes us crash after ten minutes. So for ten minutes and ten minutes only, we'll be unstoppable."

Hilde spoke up. "If we have ten minutes of invincibility, then that's our opportunity to capture Siegfried, get Ashlotte's left arm back and avoid being eaten."

Sophitia clapped her hands together. "A wonderful plan. Now, shall we get going?"

Rock and Hwang nodded as they pushed everyone back and gulped down the drink. Their bodies jiggled and wiggled and their eyes blazed with strength as sweat dripped down their forehead; as if they've been working out for three hours.

Yun-Seong looked at the two worriedly. "Err… is that drink safe?"

"It looks like they're having seizures," Cassandra added wryly as she began to have doubts about this plan.

Siegfried laughed. "Ha! What hopes do two overweight men have against these flesh eating lizards? You're all going to become dinner toni- Ahhhhh!" The crystal knight cried out in surprise as Rock rushed through the lizards with the force of a boulder and sent him flying into a pillar. He slid down the pillar with a groan and squeaked, "What the..."

"Who are you calling fat?" Rock beat his chest and roared, "For Bangoo, I cannot lose!"

On the other side, Hwang moved at lightning speed despite his immense side and he sent ten lizards flying. Everyone looked at him with admiration and said, "Wooooowwwww…."

Hwang didn't notice and he faced the lizards fearlessly as he twirled his Blue Thunder. "I shall vanquish… the evil of ages! Hyah!"

"Right behind you!" shouted Seong-Mina and Yun-Seong as they brandished their weapons; Scarlet Thunder and White Storm as they joined him.

"Now's our chance!" shouted Hilde as lizards screamed and began running away. Except for Aeon who was still spitting fireballs at Nightmare. She, Cassandra and Sophitia rushed towards Siegfried and the Wolfkrone princess shouted, "Siegfried! For our love and honor, I will bring you back to even if it means beating you senseless!"

"Bangoo!" And Rock rushed at him as well.

"This can't be happening!" cried Siegfried as he was overwhelmed by the three female warriors and a super energized caveman with a giant mace.

Ten minutes later…

Nightmare grinned evilly and stood before the beaten and tied up Siegfried. "Who's the knight of ultimate darkness now?"

"Your girlfriend has more darkness in her one pinkie than you do in your whole body," Siegfried replied cheekily. When Nightmare tried to slap him, Siegfried turned his head so Aeon got hit instead (the lizard was tied to the knight).

Hilde sighed. "Alright guys, let's drag him back to Raphael's castle and get Ivy to make some kind of potion or have Kilik purify him." Remembering something, she turned back to the collapsed Rock and Hwang who had crashed after their energy high. "Oh, and we'll get something for you two as well." She turned back as she heard Cassandra shouting.

"This is our arm!" shouted the greek girl as she tried to pull the doll's arm away from Yun-Seong.

"No! It's ours!" shouted the two Koreans as they tugged it back.

Sophitia smiled at them angrily. "Let go of the arm or else I'll have no choice but to hurt you."

Seong-Mina growled, "I don't think so. Hwang and Rock did most of the work. This arm belongs to us!"

"We saved Nightmare from getting melted into a puddle!" Cassandra retorted.

"We saved your butt from getting eaten!" snapped Yun-Seong.

"Hssshhhs shshss (What a mess we have to deal with)," Voldo said dryly as he jumped onto the stage.

Talim gracefully dropped down and she flicked away one of her dark pigtails with a sigh. "It's a good thing I can read the wind and know that Siegfried just failed."

"Hey hey! They took Red Rhino!" argued Siegfried as he wiggled in his bonds.

Talim and Voldo watched listlessly as everyone surrounded Siegfried, Aeon and Ashlotte's arm. Hilde smacked the butt of her spear into the ground and said, "If you have any honor, come back to our side and stop this madness."

Putting a hand to her cheek, Talim said sweetly, "I would love to Hilde… but unfortunately, being evil is so much fun. I am now the evil girl of the cast and I like it."

"No! I am the psycho evil girl you goodie goodie two shoes!"

Everyone turned as six figures covered in garbage climbed up the stage. Seong-Mina screamed. "Oh my god! Kunpaeteku created garbage monsters to fight us since his lizards failed!"

"Who are you calling a garbage monster?" Zasalamel wiped away the piece of candy wrapper covering his gold eye before he spat out some pieces of paper. "It's just us."

Nightmare siddled up to garbage covered Tira before waving his hand in front of his face to ward off the smell. "Whew, you smell worse than the abyss of-"

Tira smacked him before he could finish and she pointed her ring blade at Talim. "I'll cut your heart out for this…"

Talim grinned. "Oh wiinnnddddd…"

The nice thing about Setsuka's stage was that there was no garbage that could hit them. But there were pretty pink flower petals… So a pink storm of cherry blossom petals engulfed the group and Amy and Xianghua said to Tira, "Nice going."

After the storm of petals died down, Talim, Voldo, Siegfried and Aeon had disappeared. The good news was that they left behind Ashlotte's left arm since Hilde was quick enough to order the people to throw Rock and Hwang on top to protect it. Unable to get to the arm, the evil trio along with Aeon had no choice but to leave.

Raphael growled and crossed his arms. "They're more troublesome than I thought."

"We'll have to deal with them and let them come to us instead of chasing after them," Zasalamel said wisely. "Your amusement park is overunned by man-eating lizards that's been blocked off. We're stuck in here so we might as well fortify our defense."

Raphael nodded. "I agree with you this time but…" he pointed his rapier at the black man. "That arm is ours."

"Keep dreaming Sorel." Zasalamel readied his scythe and said, "That arm is ours."

"Wait…" panted Maxi as he crawled up the stage. He was dripping wet and Ivy, Setsuka, Taki and Mitsurugi followed suit. Everyone seemed rather unharmed except for the samurai since he had a big lump on his forehead.

Zasalamel counted and then he asked, "Where's Cervantes?"

"Ack…" The immortal pirate pulled himself up with a groan and all the women there screamed.

"Put on your clothes! This show is not rated mature!"

* * *

><p>Up in the sky, Algol blocked the camera and said hastily, "Cut that part out! Cut that part out!"<p>

For the people who were tuned into the show, they received a technical difficulty message that lasted five minutes.

* * *

><p>Five minutes later…<p>

Cervantes crossed his arms and chuckled. "Ha! Fear the powers of the mighty Cervantes!"

"My eyes! I need to wash out my eyes!" shouted Raphael's team as they ran off to Raphael's castle to wash out their eyes.

Setsuka shot Team Draw a dark look since they were spoiling the beauty of her stage with the pirate's nudity. "I will make them pay…"

Tira noticed and she stuck her tongue out at her. "Whatcha looking at?"

The geisha huffed before leaving with a very annoyed expression. "Wither… and fall." She struck her blade into the main pillar and left with a satisfied smile as no one noticed. With a wrench, she pulled it out and knew that it was the weakest pillar so it would crush the people there in T-minus thirty seconds.

Meanwhile, the people on Cervantes Team wanted to run away from the pirate as well but they couldn't since he was a part of the team. With no choice, Zasalamel ordered Nightmare, Yun-Seong, and Mitsurugi and himself to form a square around the pirate to block him from sight. The men were facing away from the pirate as they formed their square and they followed Zasalamel's instructions as they began to edge out of there. "Alright, left, left, left, up, up, left left…."

The good thing for them was that they had obtained Ashlotte's left arm since Raphael's team weren't strong enough to lift Rock and Hwang off the limb. And the two big guys had woken up as well (they were still drowsy from the effects of the Red Rhino) but they were moving along with the human square.

But then…

As they began siddling towards the edge of the stage, a crackling sound pervaded through the air and Taki used her ninja senses to figure out what was going on. With razor sharp eyesight, she saw the cracking pillar and she shouted, "Everyone! Get out now!"

Seong-Mina, Xianghua and Tira naturally ran for it. But Rock and Hwang were slowed down by their immense weight and as for the human square comprised of Yun-Seong, Mitsurugi, Nightmare and Zasalamel, they couldn't move any faster or else they'd break the square and reveal Cervantes's nudity to the world. Frankly, the pirate didn't care but he was trapped in his square prison so he had to contend with grumbling and whining as Setsuka's stage began to shake even more.

"Faster! Faster! Faster!" rushed Yun-Seong as dust started to fall from the ceiling.

"We're trying to go as fast as we can!" shouted the rest of the human square.

"Darn these legal issues of public nudity," Cervantes grumbled. "And if it wasn't for those blasted lizards, I wouldn't be naked!"

"I find it surprising how they'd rather eat your clothes rather than you," Mitsurugi said dryly as he tried to avoid turning his head back to look at the pirate.

"They'd probably suffer food poisoning if they ate him," Nightmare said cheekily.

To the surprise of the heaven, Team Draw made it out of there just as Setsuka's stage crumbled. "Yay!" Everyone cheered and clapped each other on the back. Except for Cervantes who was still in his square prison thing.

Up on a cherry blossom tree, Aeon, Talim, Voldo and Siegfried watched with narrowed eyes.

"What now guys?" asked Siegfried.

"Sshs hshhssh (We need to get those limbs back)," Voldo replied as he adjusted his sharp katars.

Aeon licked his lips as he looked at Hwang and Rock. Talim giggled and said, "You can have those two for dinner Aeon. Now…" She straightened up and brushed a few petals out of her dark green hair. "It's time to infiltrate that treehouse and that castle. With our army of lizards… we're unstoppable."

The four laughed evilly as the hiss of the distant lizards roaming Soul Land met their ears. Before they left, Talim said, "Oh wiiinnnnddd…"

Team Draw looked up as a tornado of pink petals buried them. "AHHHHHH!"

"Oh Soul Edge! It's so pink! So pink! Help!" Nightmare struggled to get out of the sea of pink petals but he sank like the heavy suit of armor he was.

* * *

><p>Darkwings13: Oh, so sorry for the super long wait everyone! But good news, I should be able to update about maybe twice a month if things go well. Sorry again for the long wait! But things should be good now that I have my inspiration back. Oh, even more good news! I have an idea for a sequel! What is it going to be called? Lol… you guys can look forward to Edge World after Calibur World is finished. Who's the main character? Who else but RaphNighty/Dumas who's really the same guy that's stuffed with three different identities which is sort of confusing. But that's SCV for you xD

Thanks for reading everyone! I missed you all and it would not break my heart at all if no one reviewed since you're probably all infuriated that I took so long to update ;.;


	37. Sharing Evilness is Caring

In Raphael's decadent, resplendent, and ridiculously lavish castle, everyone was keeping busy by boarding up the windows and locking the doors to make sure that the man-eating lizards couldn't come in and eat them. Or worse, eat their clothes the same way they ate Cervantes's clothes. Speaking of the subject, everyone was still mentally scared by the image.

"No matter hard I try... I can't get the image of Cervantes's bubble butt out of my head," Setsuka thought as a vein throbbed on her forehead. She slammed her fist down on the dining table and everyone looked over at her.

"Something wrong Setsuka?" Kilik asked as he stopped trying to crack open his deluxe size crab shell. Everyone else was eating a similar size King crab under the chandelier in the brightly lit dining room with its fine cutlery, ornate table and chairs and board up windows. (Despite the chaos happening outside, they were living in fine style due to the amount of wealth Raphael had accumulated through his ridiculously priced Soul Land tickets).

The geisha waved it away and muttered, "I was just thinking about my beautiful SCIII stage. Damn that pirate for ruining it with his nudity."

Everyone choked and surpressed the urge to vomit as they were reminded of the incident. Except for Yoshimitsu. The manji leader laughed. "Tis a good thing, that the heaven willed me to avoid such a horrible visage. Or I would have vomiteth like Maxi." He gestured to Maxi who just threw up.

Raphael continued eating as he said dryly, "You're cleaning that, Maxi. 3/4 of my servants were eaten by those lizards and the remaining survivors ran out of here."

"I'm surprised they didn't run away sooner," said Cassandra as wiped her mouth. "After all, you're the bossiest boss out there. Not to mention that you're unbelievably selfish and you pay them minimum wage, work them 24/7, you're super picky, vain, self-centered and-"

Raphael crushed the crystal glass in his hand and said in a low tone of voice, "Are you done?"

Cassandra said dryly, "You also have a nasty short temper like a little kid. 'Do not anger me any further than this. Blah blah blah," said Cassandra as she mocked him.

Everyone at the table lowered their cutlery nervously as they sensed the sparks of hate flow between the two's eyes. Sophitia caught Raphael's attention and whispered, "Careful. My sister has a very bad temper. She will POUND you into the GROUND."

Raphael narrowed his eyes at Cassandra. "I also have a very bad temper, like your sister indicated."

"Bring it on, you vain French dandy." And Cassandra dropped her fork and knife.

"As you wish." Raphael's eyes flashed as he said, "You have a... very big butt (everyone gasped). It is pretty attractive unfortunately, your hideous purple underwear is a total turn off. You must be blind. That color looks like crushed grapfruit mixed with over-ripe grapes. By the way, did anyone every tell you that you have a pig face in SCIV? It's pretty ugly. I thought Ivy looked like a man in SCIV but you topped it with the pig face of yours."

Luckily for Raphael, Ivy had left to get some pie from the kitchen so she didn't hear him call her a man. As for Cassandra, she was raging. There's a saying, hell has no fury like a woman scorned. Raphael obviously didn't just scorn her, he outright insulted her. And one can say an epic battle took place that night that many will not soon forget.

One hour later...

Leaning back in his chair after being healed by Kilik (the monk actually spent the remaining 45 minutes lecturing him on the importance of friendship amongst other stuff that Raphael obviously ignored or zone out of) Raphael crossed his arms. "Now that I'm healed, and Cassandra's bite mark is disinfected (when he tried to bite her, she jabbed her fist into his mouth and got bitten), I shall be quick to the point and be blunt-"

"Dude, you're always blunt and to the point," said Siegfried.

Everyone whipped their heads around as they saw the knight clawing his way through a boarded up window. "Quickly! Get him out of here!"

Hilde donned on some kitchen gloves before running over with a random frying pan in her hands. "Out! Out! You vile beast!"

"How can you do this to your boyfriend?!" shouted Siegfried as he tried to fight her off with one hand (the other one was still stuck on the outside).

"Until you return to the old you, you're not my boyfriend!" The Wolfkrone princess swung the pan back and proceeded to hit him on the head multiple times. "Snap out of it right now! I command you!"

On the outside, Talim tapped her fingers impatiently on the tree trunk she was sitting on. "What's taking so long Siegfried? It's getting cold out here!" The priestess winced as she heard the clanging metal and the knight's cries until he was shoved out the window and fell two stories down onto the hard ground.

Hilde stuck her head out and said, "Don't come back until you're no longer evil!" And she hammered the wooden boards back over the window at lightning speed.

Waving her feet back and forth, Talim wondered how she and Siegfried were going to get into the castle to retrieve Ashlotte's right arm and leg. Alun rubbed its head against her cheek and she laughed. "Ah yes, I can always depend on you can't I? Unlike somebody..." The bird and girl looked down at the groaning knight. She stood up and said, "We'll get in through the roof if we have to."

* * *

><p>After the incident, Raphael sat back in his chair and said, "So far... we have 3623 points thanks to Ashlotte's arm and leg. But Zasalamel's team has 4863 points so we're still very far behind. VERY far behind."<p>

Ivy did not look up from the magazine she was reading. "Your point?" Before Raphael could open his mouth, she said, "We're stuck in here and no one in their right mind would go out there, infiltrate their tree house and get that finger or left arm."

"But then we'll lose!" protested Raphael. "Someone here must make the sacrifice and go."

Everyone glared at the French vampire. "NO."

Raphael crossed his arms grumpily when all of a sudden, he noticed Zwei. An evil look burned in his eyes and he said, "You! You will go!"

Zwei arched an eyebrow at him. "Oh really?"

"Yes really! You live here and eat my food and you have not contributed anything useful to the team yet!"

The brooding eighteen year old replied, "Because I'm still a newcomer who hasn't made an appearance in the Soul Calibur series yet. And I'm not really on anyone's side." He put his leather boots up on the table and some dirt stained Raphael's pristine white tablecloth. "You can't make me."

Kilik said to Raphael, "He has a point. He's not a full Soul Calibur member yet and he's technically not on anyone's side-"

"Aha!" Raphael got up on his feet and said, "All of you! Follow me!"

Everyone sighed and got up. Sophitia whispered to her sister, "If he tries something dangerous that will probably jeopardize our lives, please knock him out. I shall pray for Hephaestus for luck."

Cassandra grumbled, "When doesn't he have something dangerous on his mind that will jeopardize our lives?"

Sophitia sighed. Lizards were the least of their worries. Cassandra and Raphael were such hotheads that they were likely to kill each other even if they were ten feet apart. To Amy, the Greek mother asked, "Amy, when was your father more... easy to get along with?"

"When he was still human and he didn't go after Soul Edge," replied Amy. "After he got malfested, he really hated most people for shunning us. That's why he wanted to malfest the world in SCIII."

Setsuka spoke up. "I remember that. Since it was my first game, I took the time to study everyone's profiles and story. Didn't Raphael have like five destined battles?"

Amy nodded. "Yes, he was very tense and angry. I believe he hated Cassandra the most, judging by their quotes. He thought she was just a dumb blonde and I think he's still not very fond of her."

Yoshimitsu joined the conversation. "Thy father is a very dominant man. The women he likes are usually those who are quiet and submissive since their personality would matcheth his. Cassandra probably rubbeth thy father the wrong way since she's so headstrong. Their arguments would probably causeth his castle to explode."

"I can't stand that guy," Cassandra said spitefully. "He's so not my type."

"Your destined battle and battle in SCIV certainly shows that," Amy replied dryly. "My father actually appreciates Kilik and Talim."

"Really?" Kilik popped up beside her. "Is that true?"

"Yes. Because we were hated and shunned by most humans, you and Talim were most forgiving and understanding." Amy pointed up at the monk. "He wasn't happy you purified our people and he wasn't happy with Talim trying to stop him. But he liked her ridiculous innocence and your sincerity. He didn't like Cassandra because of the way she spoke and acted. Siegfried and Nightmare was the one responsible for his malfestation so he obviously didn't like them either."

Kilik sighed. "We might have gotten along better... if he's not malfested."

Amy shrugged. "There's a good reason why legends says Soul Edge changes people. Good thing for us, my father now looks to Soul Calibur for the future."

Kilik kept silent, thinking to himself that Soul Calibur was the same as Soul Edge. But for now, most of the cast didn't believe in that ideology so he didn't reply.

* * *

><p>Entering Raphael's giant armory, everyone 'ooohhhh' and 'ahhhh' at all the weapon stacked on the wooden racks or set up against the wall. Setsuka picked a particularly nice umbrella and admired the design. "Very nice."<p>

Raphael stroked his chin before heading over to many elbow blades that were sitting in their stands. Looking at the biggest one that said 'Cao Ankana', he nodded. "Alright Zwei, you can have this one."

"What? But that's Talim's weapon, I can't use it," Zwei protested.

"Course you can!" Raphael gestured to the blade and read the description under it. "Special elbow blades created for the purpose of appeasing out-of-season windstorms and lost typhoons. Unlike normal elbow blades, there is only one because the other blade is buried as part of the ritual to appease the wind. Its large size and heavy weight translate directly to high damage, but it takes stamina to swing." Standing up, Raphael explained, "Because of how small and short Talim was, she complained to the director that she couldn't use it since it was so outrageously big and heavy; hence, she never used it again."

Kilik scratched his head. "I don't ever remember her complain before."

Raphael shrugged and murmured. "She more or less begged in a childish manner, while making really big puppy eyes during the whole process."

* * *

><p>Alittle while back... during the days of SCII.<p>

Raphael strode around on his SCII stage and nodded happily at the construction that was happening. This was after all, his first appearance in the series and the stage they had prepared for him was very nice. It was extremely manly and refine to defeat opponents on a library stage after all. He took a sip of his hot chocolate and headed down a nice corridor that was brightly lit with orange sunlight. Another newcomer, the korean kid named Yun... Raphael pursed his lips and tried to remember. Yun-Seuck? Yun-Shok? Yun-Suck? At the last one, the Frenchman nearly snorted his hot chocolate up his nostrils as he tried not to laugh.

Yun-Seong raised an eyebrow at the guy who was choking on his drink and walked away. "Weird guy..."

Continuing on his way, he heard someone crying. Coming to a stop, he leaned over alittle and peeked over at the young girl that was sitting crossed legged on his stage's Persian carpet. Weapons were scattered everywhere and he noted an especially big one near her. As the inconsiderate jerk he was, he did this. Raphael strode over to her and said, "Errr... could you move? I'm planning on moving some furniture there."

When the girl looked up at him with ridiculously big and innocent eyes that was still sparkling with tears and said, "Wind? I mean, Raphael?", his eyes widen. This was the last priestess of winds he kept hearing about? Turning away, he bit his lips and put a hand over his heart. Damn it. He had been imagining a sexy, tanned, and exotic woman but instead, it was a super adorable young girl. Which was cool and all but he rather have the sexy woman since apparently, Ivy had taken a vow of chastity, Sophitia was married, her sister Cassandra was way too loud, Seong-Mina was also too loud, Xianghua was infatuated with Kilik and way too clingy, Taki would kill him if he even look at her so there was a good reason he had high hopes for this mysterious wind priestess. Who was apparently a bit of a crybaby.

"Ah, why are thou crying young one?" Yoshimitsu noticed and he strode over to the child. Under his mask, the manji leader looked at Raphael questioningly. "Did thou do something to her?"

"Yes... what have you done to the poor dear?" Ivy's heels clacked across the floor and she crossed her arms over her ample bosom. She asked Talim, "Did the man say something to you?"

"N-no." Talim pointed to her weapons; Weight (joke weapon) and Cao Ankana. "I was just crying because I don't want to use these things. They're too heavy and they hurt my arms."

Raphael scoffed. "They can't be that heavy." He thrust his hot chocolate into her hands and proceeded to reach for the weights.

Yoshimitsu, Ivy and Talim winced when they heard Raphael's back snap. At Ivy and Yoshimitsu, Talim said, "And that's why I need to tell the director that I don't want to use these." At Raphael, she smiled. "Will you come with me and be my example?"

* * *

><p>Back to the present...<p>

"Oh yes, I remember what happened." Ivy closed her eyes and chuckled.

Beside her, Yoshimitsu laughed. "Tis a very memorable event indeed."

"Shut up." Raphael pointed to the weapon. "I now give you this weapon so that you can be a part of the team and replace Talim who's currently evil." He then snapped his fingers as he remembered something. "Ah yes. You're German aren't you?"

"Yea..." Zwei replied hesitantly.

"You can also be the replacement for Siegfried. There! Two birds with one stone," Raphael said happily, congratulating himself for his genius.

Up on the roof, Talim and Siegfried both crushed a roof tile to dust in their hands in anger.

Uncomfortable with the nonchalant way Raphael was acting, Sophitia spoke up with a concerned expression. "Raphael, I know you're trying to be practical about the situation but... aren't you at all worried about the fate of our companions?" She was curious since Amy had said that Raphael seemed to appreciate Kilik and Talim the most and yet he was acting like this.

Amy answered for her father. "They're the ones that are trying to kill us. Along with the lizards. We need to protect ourselves first before we try to help them."

The monk scratched the scar on his cheek in thought as he leaned against a rack of swords. "If only there was some way we can cure them... Oh yea, has anyone seen my master?"

Maxi stopped admiring his nunchakus under the dark armory lights and said, "I think I saw him, Olcadan and Talim's grandmother running off somewhere. You don't think they got eaten do you?"

"At this rate, who knows anymore." Ivy crossed her arms tiredly. "I'll try and work up some kind of antidote and maybe we can cure Talim and Siegfried. Call me if you need me." And the alchemist sauntered off to one of Raphael's secret laboratory.

"So... now what?" asked Setsuka.

"How about we watch a movie?" suggested Cassandra. "They say that when people are stranded together, it's best if they keep occupied or else they'll become paranoid and crazy."

Hilde put a hand over her eyes. "Why does it always end up like this?"

Once the group left, Talim and Siegfried leaped down and landed on the black marble floor. Putting a hand on his hip, he said to the lizards who were looking down at them, "Stay outside the castle for now. Once we get back Ashlotte's body parts, it's go time."

Talim nudged him. "Let's get Soul Calibur while we're at it. Alun, darling." She petted her bird. "Find us the items alright?" Talim beamed as her falcon flew off. Reaching into her pockets, she slapped some black pills into Siegfried hands. "Lord Kunpaeteku gave me some and he said the more people we turn evil, the better. His plan to take over this twentieth century will go much more smoothly once he has the whole Soul Calibur cast on his side."

* * *

><p>At Team Draw's Treehouse...<p>

"Get out of the way lizardbrain!" Tira beat the poor lizard that was trying to get through one of their boarded up window before grabbing the hammer out of Mitsurugi's hands. She broke his knuckles before sending him flying.

Nightmare quickly gave her some more wooden boards and the group sighed in relief when the last window was boarded up. The Azure knight let out a deep breath. "How long are we going to be stuck in here?"

Zasalamel was eating Kraft dinner and he chewed slowly before answering. "Until I come up with a plan to get out of here. On the bright side, at least we've obtained one of Ashlotte's leg and her finger." Taki was sitting beside him on the red sofa and she tapped on her chin thoughtfully. "Putting aside the battle between us and Raphael's team, don't you think it would be a good idea to join up with them and take down Kunpaeteku before anymore innocent people are harmed?"

Zasalamel snapped the spoon in his hand in half. He turned to the ninja with a forced smile. "I'm sorry... did you say something?"

"No way we're joining up with those punks," Cervantes grunted as he surfed through the channels on their giant T.V.

The ninja said in a matter of fact voice, "The point is, we could all die if we don't do something besides hiding in our treehouse."

"Ha! We'll die for sure if go out there." To emphasize his point, Yun-Seong shoved aside the curtains and pointed to the yellow lizard eye that was looking at them through the small hole in the boarded up window. Closing the curtains, he shrugged. "They'll have to leave sooner or later. It's not like they can stay in Soul Land forever."

Two hours later...

"I want to get out of here!" Nightmare shouted as he ran around the living room in circles and knocked over a owl figurine on the sidetable.

"It's only been two hours! Get a hold of yourself Nightmare!" Xianghua scolded as she and Seong-Mina tried to restrain him.

Perched on the branches of the treehouse, Voldo and Lizardman could hear the bickering that went on inside the place and they both shook their heads. Idiots...

After taping Nightmare's metal mouth shut, everyone settled down and began playing Monopoly. It was a useful distraction and everyone knows that a Monopoly game always takes up lots up time. On the other hand, they neglected the fact that it has been breaking relationships since 1900 something.

It was only fifteen minutes and Zasalamel was already winning. Cervantes grumbled as he got sent to jail and he leaned back moodily against the couch. Hwang shook the dices in his hand before rolling them out and he groaned when he got a triple 1. And he landed on one of Zasalamel's owned property.

Tira tapped on her chin in boredom as she watched them play. "How long will we have to stay in this stupid treehouse? It's so booooooring."

Seong-Mina flipped through a magazine and sighed. "Until the toilet paper runs out."

Outside the treehouse, Voldo and Lizardman passed the time by drawing graffiti art on the wood of the house.

* * *

><p>Tiptoeing through the castle, Siegfried tried to use his connection to the spirit sword to sense where it was. After all, he was Soul Calibur's chosen one before that crazy vampire took his sword and used it to make this new world for Amy. When he heard footsteps behind him, he quickly opened the door to the nearest room he could see and shut it. Putting an ear to the door, he heard Amy talking to Zwei.<p>

"So how's the sword?" asked the young vampirette.

Zwei grunted in annoyance as he dragged it behind him. "This damn thing is fricking heavy. I'm taking it to my room to re-customize it. Does your father have welding tools?"

"He has everything. Especially chocolate and wine," Amy said emotionlessly as they walked down the dimly lit corridor.

"Heh, must be nice to be rich." Zwei came to a stop to catch his breath alittle before saying, "So, who's your mother?"

"I'm adopted," replied Amy. "Raphael saved me when I saved him. Like you, I was a poor orphan in the streets."

"Well, you certainly don't look like it now." Zwei shrugged off his ripped purple vest and tied it around his waist before gesturing to the rapier at her side (everyone was carrying around a weapon just for protecting in case a lizard broke though the boarded up windows). "So I'm guessing he taught you how to fight?"

"And dance, sing, poetry, reading, and yes, fighting."

Zwei smirked before continuing to drag his sword. "He could do something to teach you how to lighten up and smile. Are you always this gloomy?"

Amy pouted at him slightly. "Careful what you wish for. When I do smile, people are in real trouble."

"Yea, I'll be sure to watch out then. Wouldn't want you to bite me or something." Zwei said sarcastically. "But for the most part, girls do better with clawing then biting. For me, my bark is worst than my bite." Beside him, his puppy let out a barking laugh with its master.

When Siegfried couldn't hear the two young ones anymore, he sighed in relief. Turning around, he looked to see which room he was in and he panicked when he realized he was in Hilde's room. She had decorated the place with symbols of Wolfkrone everywhere. The giant poster of her country was especially eye-catching. Things turned worse when his girlfriend stepped out from behind the changing screen in her princess Wolkrone pajamas.

Hilde blinked and rubbed her eyes a few times before exclaiming, "Sieg-" Before she could yell out his name, Siegfried jumped her. "Have you no omph! Honor! Peeping ouch! Tom! You truly are-augh! Evil! Evil!"

Outside, Kilik and Raphael walked past the door and noticed the strange noises going on inside. It even sounded like something was being smashed. Puzzled, Raphael knocked on her door. "Is everything alright in there? Are you breaking my furniture woman?"

Kilik stopped the dark lord from entering. "Please Raphael, Hilde is probably distraught about what's happening to Siegfried. She must blame herself for being unable to help him and being stuck in your castle. She's most likely just venting her frustration so it's best not to bother her."

"What if she's breaking my furniture?" asked Raphael, worried about his pricey items.

Kilik just gave him a hard look and pushed him away from the door. "Come on, we're looking for Amy remember?"

"Yes... I just saw that horribly dressed Zwei talking with her for abit before they walked off. He better stay away from my Amy," Raphael said threateningly as they walked off.

Five minutes later...

An armored Hilde opened the door with Siegfried by her side. Her eyes flashed red momentarily as she slammed the butt of her lance into the ground. "For the glory of Wolfkrone... we shall turn everyone in here evil."

Siegfried looked at the evil princess with admiration. "I love you, Hilde."

* * *

><p>Taking off her chemistry goggles, Ivy waved away the many colored smoke in the messy laboratory. She held up five colored vials and pursed her lips. "Potion of cuteness, potion of the spirits, potion of bad luck, potion of ageing and potion of extreme skills. "And yet I can't make a cure for Talim and Siegfried." She put the vials back down before messing around some more with the alchemy.<p>

After half an hour, the alchemist exclaimed happily, "At last! I've created the cure." The sound of a screeching falcon caught her attention and she gasped as it flew towards her and snatched away the crystal blue vial. "No! Get back here!" She used her whip to try and catch it but the nimble bird dodged it. Panicking slightly since she had ran out of the ingredients to make a second one, she grabbed a vial containing the potion of extreme cuteness and hurled it with all her might.

The contents splashed over the falcon and in a poof of smoke, a very round and fluffy white bird blinked in confusion with its enormous yellow sparkling eyes that would melt the heart of anyone that saw. Just at that moment, Maxi saw the helpless round bird as it plopped onto the ground in confusion. He had a tray of snacks in his hands that he was going to bring to the alchemist but he put it on one of the laboratory table before picking up the bird. "Awww... hey, watcha doing here cutie?"

Alun let out a peeping sound as it rustled its feathers and flapped its wings at the corked vial in its not so threatening talons. Maxi arched an eyebrow as he held it up. "Did you take this from Ivy?"

"Yes... and I want it back right now."

Maxi turned around and saw the very peeved alchemist standing before him with her arms crossed. "Hey hey, chill. No need to get so angry, it'll give you wrinkles. No need to get the fans depressed with the fact that you're the oldest woman on the roster eh?"

Ivy took back the vial before stomping down on his foot. "Squirm..."

"Ow ow ow!" Maxi hopped on one foot with the round bird in his arms before glaring at her. "Fine! Be a grumpy hag and get your own snacks!" Taking back the tray, Maxi stormed out of there. After walking for awhile, he figured it might be a good time to go watch a movie and eat some snacks before heading to bed. To the bird, he asked, "So, you wanna spend the night with me?" Alun chirped and shook its head. Maxi laughed. "Really? You'd be the first girl to have ever reject this devilishly handsome pirate."

"Alun is a boy."

Maxi jumped and his snacks scattered everywhere in the dark hallway as he heard Talim's voice. "Talim?!" He quickly dropped the bird and reached for his nunchaku. "Stay back or I'll use this on you."

Talim ignored him as she held out her hands for her bird. Alun dutifully flew into her arms and Talim pet the round white bird for a few moments before saying in a dangerously sweet voice, "Maxi... what have you done to my falcon?"

"That's Alun?" Maxi said incrediously. He had no idea what happened; when he found the bird, it was already like that. He tried to explain but the wind priestess just patted her bird before drawing her own weapons. Maxi took a step back and said in a low tone of voice, "I don't like hitting woman, especially little girls so don't make me hurt you Talim."

Talim smiled and said, "That's so nice of you Maxi. But..."

"You'll be dealing with us."

Maxi gasped as Hilde and Siegfried appeared right behind Talim. "Siegfried?! Hilde?! What-" But then the pirate realized that Hilde must have been turned evil as well. "No! How could you do something like that to your girlfriend," he shouted angrily to the crystal knight.

Siegfried ran a hand through his long blonde hair and smirked. "We'll be doing the same thing to you as well..."

Maxi's eyes widened. "What?!"

Talim chirped, "Sharing is caring. And it'd be so nice to share our evilness with you, right?"

* * *

><p>"What! How could I have gone bankrupt?!" Cervantes exclaimed angrily as Zasalamel took all of his money.<p>

The immortal man grinned victoriously. "Game over, Cervantes."

"Haha, you lost to Zassy!" Tira poked Cervantes in the back and giggled, "That was so baaaaaad. You landed on his train tracks five times!"

"Quiet! This is a stupid game anyway," grumbled the purple pirate as he got and walked away. "I'm going to bed instead of spending more time on this useless game."

Zasalamel smirked and said, "Someone's a sore loser." With a gesture, he pointed to Mitsurugi. "Your turn."

Mitsurugi bit the insides of his cheek as he looked at the remaining money in his hands. $500. That was all that's left. If he doesn't roll higher then a six with the two dices, he would land on the Boardwalk that was owned by Zasalamel. And that would be BAD. Because BANKRUPTCY was BAD. To be BANKRUPT would mean that he would LOSE. And Heishiro Mitsurugi never LOSES. Rolling the dices furiously in the palms of his hands, he threw them down and sweated like a waterfall as the dices spun around and around and around and around and around and around and (you get my point).

Yun-Seong was sitting beside him and he smirked. "Let's see what happens next..."

"Shut up punk."

"Don't tell me to shut up!"

"I am Mitsurugi. Of course I can tell you to shut up."

"You shut up!"

"I thought I told you to shut up kid."

"Both of you! Shut up!" shouted Seong-Mina and Xianghua as they were trying to watch Titanic. They were on the scene where Jack about to drown or something and the men's pointless shouting were making them angry.

The two men huffed and returned their attention to the spinning dices. When it finally came to a stop, Mitsurugi breathed a sigh of relief as he got a ten. Unfortunately, he landed on Yun-Seong's dirt poor property so he had to fork over some money.

Yun-Seong grinned and held out a hand. "That will be fifty dollars please."

* * *

><p>Darkwings13: Sorry for the long absence, I've been preoccupied with alot of stuff so I haven't found the time to write. Glad to have made it in time for New Year though :D<p>

Thanks for all the reviews last chapter everyone. I really appreciate it. Anyway, next chapter will be more focused on Team Draw. There's no way these guys will sit in their treehouse and play Monopoly forever right? ;D

As for Raphael's team, let's see how many more people succumb to the dark pills of evilness before Ivy's newfound cure is used. Stay tune for the next chapter! Happy New Year everyone! (Hugs and cookies). Algol will be back for the next chapter as well by the way. He and his kids are just alittle preoccupied right now.

* * *

><p>"Come on everyone! Hold your position! If those lizards break through the gates, everyone outside Soul Land will be in danger!" Algol shouted as he told his employees (who were well-trained in the arts of war because he had alot of free time to train them) to keep the gates tightly locked and their guns aimed at any of the flying lizards that tries to get out by flying.<p>

Kami sighed and looked up at the moon. "Daddy, can we go now? I want to sleep."

His son agreed and he added, "Father, I thought you were supposed to be recording on what's happening to the teams."

Algol replied, "Yes but the two wimpy teams decided to hide like turtles inside their fortresses. From all I know, only Edgemaster, Olcadan and Talim's grandmother are still out there and fighting. I got a call from them, telling me that Kunpaeteku has set up base underground in Astartoth's stages. There's something very sinister going on..."

"Dad! I WANT TO SLEEP NOW!"

"Ok ok, I'll talk about it more later on. Come on, let's go home then." When his employees gave him despairing looks, Algol said, "I'll pay you guys overtime. Now stay there and keep working."

When Algol was out of sight, one of the dudes muttered, "I rather have him pay me in coffee rather than money at this rate." Just to emphasize his point, one of his friend keeled over and and fell asleep.


	38. Kaaats, Lizards and A Spirit Dog

"Ahahaha..." Kunpaeteku laughed evilly as he walked through the underground passage beneath Soul Land. With a flashlight in hand to light the dark passage, an army of robotic Astaroths behind him, as well as his muscly and tattoed gangsta bodyguards, he was well protected and things were proceeding very smoothly with his plan. In his other hand, he was holding Ashlotte's head close to his chest and he said, "Well now dollie, what do you think of my army of robotic Astaroths? I based their models on this new world technology as well as his old blueprint."

Ashlotte's head remained expressionless. "I see you've made modifications. Based on my estimation, their strength and stamina has been upgraded by 33.462%, their accuracy by 29.889% and their hideousness by 99.999%. Those hips look disproportional to their bodies and it's reminiscent of a Barbie doll."

This was true since Astaroth's tall and metal frame had an awkwardly small waist that would make most women of the 1600's real jealous; especially since they've had to suffocate themselves with corsets just to obtain that small size waist that the grey robotic Astaroths were sporting.

"Aren't they magnificent?" Kunpaeteku said proudly, his black cloak swishing back and forth as he walked alittle faster. "With those hips, people will be too distracted by the strange sight and then the Astaroth will hit them hard!"

Ashlotte was slightly awed by the fact he could come up with something so silly and stupid but would actually have a 17.422% of working. "I... underestimated you. You are truly an evil and mad genius."

"Hehehehe, I know right?" As they walked, Kunpaeteku had the Astaroths stationed at certain parts to stand guard at certain tunnel ways to guard the underground style palace cult. With the Lizardmen above and the Astaroths below, Team Draw as well as Raphael's team would never stand a chance of getting to him.

After a brief time, Ashlotte spoke up. "What's your reason for infiltrating the underground passageway of Soul Land? Your cult lies far from here."

"Actually... it's right here." The light from the flashlight beamed into Ashlotte's face and she blinked her pale violet eyes a few times before clearing her vision. "Can not comprehend information. This is merely Astaroth's underground stage that's used for amusement at Soul Land. It's a carbon copy, not your cult," she said as took in the familiar underground cult with its stonework, statues of the snake lady, and flickering blue torches.

The evil priest turned off his flashlight and chucked it behind him. "Exactly. It's an exact replica of our cult, dollie. I've decided to take over the world by using this place as my base. After all, most people would expect me to be at our old location so this is best. And I don't have to pay for the plane tickets!" He jerked his finger behind him. "Do you know how much it cost to get all those Astaroths here by plane! I'm not doing it again!"

"I don't understand. You've made robotic Astaroths so why do you still need my newly wedded husband of forty-three hours, 54 minutes and 32 seconds?"

He shook his head at her. "Dollie, there's a flaw to these Astaroths." Kunpaeteku whipped out a bill and showed it to the her head. "Do you see how expensive my electricity bill is! These things have to constantly be recharged and I'm already in debt! I tried to get lighting to strike them a few times but it's horribly tedious and so, I need Astaroth's heart to make non-robotic Astaroths to take over the world." Shoving the paper back into his pocket, he smiled and stroke his black goatee. "Once my minions take control of the Soul characters as well as Soul Calibur and Soul Edge, I'll be unstoppable. Muhahah hahahahha hahah."

* * *

><p>Team Draw's comfy living room in their treehouse...<p>

"I've won." Zasalemel said that with a certain glow to his voice and he puffed out his chest. He had claimed every single piece of property on the monopoly board and Mitsurugi had a throbbing vein on his forehead as his next turn, would obviously be his last.

"Well, now what? Are we going to sit in here forever?" Nightmare was busy applying eyedrops to Soul Edge since the eye on the sword sometimes got irritated by his dusty room. Tucking away the bottle of eyedrops, he leaned back against the red couch and yawned. "Hurry up and go bankrupt Mitsurugi, the Azure knight needs to go to bed." He then pointed to Tira who was napping at his feet. "And she needs to get stop using my armored foot as a pillow and go to her own bed. So hurry it up!"

Sitting beside the bi-polar girl, Xianghua began to cry. "I wish Kilik was here to love me the same way Nightmare loves Tira (not really). I miss him so much... If it wasn't for those man-eating lizards out there, I would run over to Raphael's castle and see him right this very moment."

In a dry voice, Taki said from behind her magazine (the latest edition of Weapon Master), "Why not call him?"

"But what if he's sleeping?"

The Korean girl just walked over to the phone holder on the wall and took it. Walking back to Xianghua, Seong-Mina handed it over and said, "Hey hey, I'm sure he knows that you are far more important than a few hours of sleep."

Xianghua's eyes lit up and she beamed. "Yes, you're absolutely right. Kilik would feel much better about the dreadful situation we're in once he hears my voice."

"Yea... well, at least your voice is ten times better than the hissing screeches those lizards are making," muttered Rock and Hwang who were sitting on the fluffy rug and playing cards.

The Chinese girl tapped her finger on the red armrest of the sofa and pouted, "Of course it is! Do you know how long it took me to reach that perfect pitch and tone when I say 'Just Kidding?'"

"No kidding," Nightmare muttered as he thought about how annoying it was. When Xianghua shot him a dark look, he quickly beamed. "Nice look. It's full of darkness and rage! I can see the savagery in your eyes Xianghua."

Xianghua sighed and shook her head before dialing to call her boyfriend. After awhile, Kilik finally picked up the phone and she said sweetly, "Kilik! It's me, Xianghua! How are you and Maxi? Are you guys holding up alright?"

"Holy Caliburrrr! How did those lizards get into my kitchen!" shouted Rapahel's voice in the background of the phone conversation.

"Fear my lance and sword, as Wolfkrone's princess strike you down!"

"You're breaking my plates woman!"

"Quiet! You're nothing but a servant of the holy sword, I shall make you evil right here and right now!"

"Me?! A servant! You shall pay for your insolence Hilde! Hey, and why are we repeating our story battle dialogues with each other?"

Just then, Talim's voice came through the phone. "You tried to replace me and Siegfried just like that?! And you people turned my falcon into a big baby bird?! I will have the wind carry your screams to Lord Kunpaeteku! Wind!

Next, Maxi's voice also came through. "Come Kilik, as friends, let's join the dark side together. Hell, once we're done here, we'll move to Team Draw's stupid treehouse and make Xianghua evil as well!"

Xianghua said frantically into the phone, "Kilik! Was that Maxi who just said that? What's happening over there! Kilik?! Kilik?!"

"Sorry Xianghua, my hands are full in trying to purify Hilde, Siegfried, Talim and Maxi and we're sorta being overrun by lizards. I'll call you back as soon as possible if I don't get eaten. Love you, bye."

Xianghua held the phone limply in her hand and began crying, "Oh no, lizards are invading Raphael's castle and Kil-Kilik might get eaten..." And she burst into tears.

Just then, a scaly clawed hand ripped through their boarded up window and Aeon poked his head in. "Hsss..."

Yun-Seong shouted, "It's Lizardman!" The lizard hissed angrily and Yun-Seong asked, "What?"

Rock translated and said, "He told you to call him Aeon or else he'll eat you!"

"Why? We've been calling him Lizardman for awhile now."

Aeon roared and shot a blast of fire at the Korean who had to quickly duck to avoid being turned into well-done piece of meat. "Ok ok! I'll call you Aeon!" Yun-Seong shouted as Aeon unleashed his firebreath which the Korean managed to dodge, by utilizing his crane stance (this stance automatically has him dodge all vertical moves).

Just then...

"Howah!" Cervantes rolled down the stairs and into the living room with his swords. The undead pirate was wearing some really ugly, purple, fuzzy pajamas since he was getting ready for bed before he got attacked by the reptiles. Sitting up, he pointed and said, "Voldo managed to infiltrate the bedrooms and he's leading a bunch of lizards as well!"

"This is it..." Mitsurugi stood up and unsheathed his shining katana. The passionate fires of anticipation for a fight burned in his eyes as the hisses of the lizards reached their ears. "Stupidity has dragged on long enough. What was I doing, sitting here and playing monopoly? I am Heishiro Mitsurugi and I will fight my battles head on!" He slashed the monopoly board and began fighting the lizards that streamed down the stairs as the fake money papers flew everywhere.

"Wait, why did you slash the monopoly board?" Yun-Seong asked curiously as the monopoly money rained down on everyone.

"Because that means I never lost," Mitsurugi said with a gleam in his eyes before he returned to the fighting.

"Sore loser," mumbled the young Korean dryly. "Ok, let's get this started."

Everyone else readied their weapon and Zasalmel said, "Time to get serious then. If Raphael's team dies or gets turned evil, we're the only ones left who can save this world." His gold eye gleamed as he said, "The true future of the world shall come true, even if it takes me a hundred years!" Snatching his heavy scythe from the wall, he cut off a lizard's tail and smirked. "Flounder, silly beast."

Taki leaped to his side and guarded his back before saying curtly, "You know the tails grows back right?"

"... Yes." Zasalamel bit the inside of his cheek in slight embarrassment and said, "I'll aim for the head next time."

From the other side, a vicious battle raged with the Azure knight. "Let Soul Edge devour your souls!" Nightmare swept a bunch of them away and sent them flying into the giant T.V screen and he let out a manly and evil laugh. "Yes! The darkness shall consume you all!"

"Nightmare you dunce! Don't break the expensive items!" shouted Hwang.

In response, Nightmare purposely sent another lizard crashing into Hwang's collection of Korean dramas. "Ha, watcha going to do now? Ooof!" Hwang tackled the Azure knight to the ground and proceeded to sit on him with his fat body. "Get off me you overweight and replaced character!"

"I'll cut your limbs off for waking me up!" Gloomy Tira growled as she swung her ring blade up and down and danced around the reptiles with her deadly grace. She then leapt into the air and was about to perform one of her acrobatic and fatal move but then her head banged against the ceiling and she fell to the floor (luckily, the small pile of monopoly money cushioned her fall. Sort of.). The crash turned her jolly and with a pout, she pounded on the ground. "This place is too crowded! Zassy! Do something!"

"I'm alittle preoccupied, Tira," Zasalamel said with a -can't you see that I'm taking on five lizards at once- look. Which actually wasn't much compared to Mitsurugi who was dealing with ten of the lizards on his own.

From the window, Aeon hissed and he shot out more blasts of fire. Now let's remind ourselves that their home is a TREEHOUSE. In other words, this place quickly caught on fire and in T-minus a few minutes, everything was going to burn. Usually, Nightmare would be pretty happy when people are dying and things are burning. But in this case, not really.

"Everyone! Get out now!" commanded Zasalamel, gesturing to his team to start heading down the ladder. "And Nightmare! Grab your girlfriend!"

Nightmare jumped through a ring of fire that was eating their rug and grabbed one of Tira's hand. "Tira! Hold on to my deformed and malfested hand!"

This made Tira's eyes sparkled with joy as she said, "Nighty, you do care..."

But then the Azure knight jumped on her back and pointed forward. "Now hurry up and carry me out of here!"

This caused Tira to switch to her gloomy side. "WHAT DID YOU SAY YOU HUNK OF EVIL JUNK!"

Aeon snapped his jaw at Seong-Mina who ran past the window but she dodged him and ran out with the rest of the team. The lizard snarled and tried to wiggle his body out of the boarded up window but it was proving to be alittle difficult. They had done a good job boarding it up and it had take a whole monopoly game to claw part of his way in. But right now, it looks like his head and his right arm was stuck. Aeon hissed and wiggled some more as the fire spread across the treehouse and after awhile, he panicked. "Shhhhsshsh!"

On the outside, some of the flying lizards noticed their master lizard who was obviously in trouble and they flew over to help. Grabbing onto his scaly legs, they beat their wings and pulled.

Meanwhile, on the ladder...

Xianghua screamed as lizards snapped at her legs as she began climbing down. "Get these things away from me!"

"Kaaats!" Mitsurugi held his sword up high and jumped down without using the ladder. "Get down while I hold them off!" shouted the samurai as he squashed a lizard flat by landing on it. Next, he proceeded to defend his teammates as he slashed and cut with the fury of a raging tornado. Grabbing onto a lizard, he shouted, "Kaaats!" and knocked it out with his bare fist.

While the lizards swarmed the samurai who keeps shouting 'Kaaaats!', everyone on Team Draw made it down safely and Zasalamel quickly looked into the future. Concentrating, he said, "We need to head underground and infiltrate Kunpaetku current base, which is Astaroth's stages from SCII, SCIII, and SCIV all combined into a giant nightmarish cult right now." He then looked at Rock and Hwang who were still overweight and said, "I can cast a spell that'll give you back your old athletic worthy Soul Calibur bodies but the after-effects-"

"It's fine." Hwang raised up his hand to interrupt. In a manly voice, he said, "We shall bear the consequences of your spell for the sake of defeating Kunpaetku and his evil creations and in saving our team members as well as the world."

As for Rock, he just said this. "For Bangoo!"

"Alright then." Zasalamel quickly murmured an incantation and the light from the burning treehouse above them illuminated his serious eyes. (In the background, Mitsurugi was still busy shouting Kaats and dealing with the lizards). Yellow light engulfed Rock's and Hwang bodies and when it died down, they were hot and fit again.

"Let's go." Hwang twirled his Blue Thunder pointed to the path straight ahead that was littered with empty soda cans, pizza boxes and discarded cotton candy bags.

Xianghua had a look of determination on her face as she readied her own sword. "I shall cut my own path through these lizards and save Kilik. No regrets!" And they all ran off and headed for the Molten Lava Stage (Yoshimitsu's stage from SCIII) to find a way to get to the cult.

"Hey! You people forgot about me! Xianghua! The lizards are over here!" Mitsurugi shouted as he fought against a sea of lizards. But soon, he sank out of sight underneath the mass of scaly bodies, sadly forgotten by his team.

After being saved by his lizard underlings, Aeon was perched on top of the tree and he hissed before stretching out his beautiful white wings. Voldo jumped on his back and when the blind and mute man was ready, Aeon took off into the night sky to report back to Kunpaeteku to prepare the traps.

After a few minutes of running through the eerie, deserted and trashed amusement park, Taki stopped. "Wait, we just forgot about Mitsurugi."

There was a bit of a stunned silence before Cervantes said slowly, "So... should we go back for him?"

After some consideration, everyone laughed and shook their head. "Nah, it's Mitsurugi. He'll survive." And they continued running off for the Molten Lava Stage.

But then Tira spoke up. "Wait! We forgot about Ashlotte's finger and left arm in the tree house!"

Zasalamel's right eye twitched. "We just lost 400 points."

* * *

><p>At Raphael's dark castle...<p>

"No! Team Draw just went down!" Sophitia pointed out the window at the sight of the burning treehouse from afar.

"The only good thing that happened so far tonight," Raphael said dryly as he slashed at Maxi who was swinging his nunchaku at him while the two fought in the chaotic hallway.

Yoshimitsu knocked back two lizards with his bad- I mean poison breath move and lectured the vampire. "Raphael, how can thou be so tactless? They are still fellow Soul Calibur members and at this rate, Kunpaetku's evil plan will cometh true!"

"Whatever," replied the uncaring Lord of the Night. He continued fending off Maxi''s low attack and breathed a sigh of relief as Ivy and Setsuka took over for him. At the alchemist, he shouted, "Ivy! Where's that cure you said you've made!"

Ivy slapped her whip up and pulled down a heavy painting which flattened two lizards before answering. "It's in my laboratory! I had to use the bathroom and before I could return, these lizards were swarming all over the place!"

Raphael snapped to Ivy, "Well, go get that damn cure because I-"

"Wind!"

"Hugh!" Raphael got spun in the air in a ridiculous manner before flying straight down the stairs towards an open jaw of a lizard. At the last second, he used his teleportation power and stomped down on the lizard's back. "Know your place!" With a final stomp, he got off the moaning lizard and shouted, "SOMEONE GO GET THAT STUPID CURE RIGHT NOW! AND STOP BREAKING MY FURNITURE!"

Just to annoy him, Talim giggled as she blasted a large vase from the Ming Dynasty into the air and Hilde threw her lance, shattering the treasure (that costed $20000) to pieces.

Raphael gasped. "That was a twenty thousand dollars antique! How dare you!"

"As a princess of Wolfkrone, no one tells me what to do!" Hilde said as she pointed her sword at Raphael. "You will join my side in battle or you shall have to face-"

"Face what? Your Siggy?" Raphael said snidely.

On the steps of the stairs, Talim clasped her hands behind her back and shook her head. "Not just Siegfried. You'll have to face Soul Calibur as well."

"What?" Before Raphael could say anything more, a tidal blast of ice froze him solid as Siegfried's slammed the holy sword into the ground, making the ice flashed down the stairs at a high velocity.

Setsuka ran out from the hallway and readied her blade against the knight on the top of the stairs. "How did you find the location of Soul Calibur? Raphael hid it deep inside his castle."

"Yea, in his bedroom. His password for the safe was also pretty laughable." Siegfried rested his hand on the hilt and smiled. With his old sword back, his armor grew shinier and more ice-like, making him look sorta like a lightbeam.

"What was his password?" asked Kilik as he stepped up beside the geisha.

"No duh. It's AMY," everyone said in a matter of fact voice.

The monk turned red and scratched his head. "Yea, I suppose that's just like him."

Walking up to the crystalized Raphael, Cassandra kicked him. "You chose that as a password?! Can't you do a better job of protecting Soul Calibur? What kind of idiot are you!"

Raphael's mouth twitched and when some ice broke off his lips, he retorted, "Fine! Next time, I'll set the password to 'I hate Cassandra and her big mouth'!"

"Everyone, time to stop bickering," Talim said with a pleasant smile as she slowly stepped down each steps of the stair with an air of victory. She opened her arms and said gently, "It's time for you to join the dark side of the wind."

Before anyone can move, Siegfried unleashed more ice from the glowing holy sword and froze them all. The two hallways and the entire staircase was now filled with frozen Soul Calibur characters and Raphael's paintings were ruined, as well as the purple rug underneath the hardwood floor. Hilde looked around and said warily, "Where's Amy and Zwei?"

"They won't get far." Maxi pointed to the lizards that were obediently standing there for their orders. "You guys, go find them."

* * *

><p>Zwei rapped on Amy's door rapidly with his knuckles as he held onto the five bottles of Ivy's potions. "Amy! Open up!"<p>

Amy held her Albion up as she guardedly opened it. When she saw he was alone, she let him into the room. Raphael had forbid her to join the fighting since he was worried for her safety. Therefore, he had forced her to stay in her room where it was safer. "How's the fighting?" Amy asked worriedly, looking up at Zwei with concern for the safety of her father.

"From the screams I can hear, not good," Zwei answered grimly as he stepped inside. A large bed rested against the wall, under a translucent violet canopy. Moonlight shone through the two windows beside the bed and on the floor, giant stuffed animals and dolls sat around the bed and stared at nothing with glassy eyes. A pretty dressing table sat nearby with a few cosmetics and Zwei spotted the pink and purple orb resting on a small lilac colored pillow on the table.

When the door was locked securely, Zwei held up the potions. "Anyway, while I tried to help, Ivy asked me to fetch the cure from her lab." In a annoyed voice, he added, "But she didn't label which one was the cure and these were the only potions that were still warm from the recent experimentation."

Amy pursed her lips. "How will we know which one is the one we'll need?" At her feet, Ein barked excitedly and began chasing his tail. Crossing her arm, an idea popped into her head.

Zwei seemed to know what she was thinking and he said curtly, "We're not testing the potions on Ein. That's animal cruelty and he's **my pet."**

Amy huffed, "Why don't you test the potion on yourself then?"

Zwei said sarcastically, "I'm so going to chug down unknown chemicals because I KNOW nothing bad will happen to me."

Amy looked at him for a moment before deciding that Zwei wasn't the type of guy to crack when the going was tough. But she was sure he would crack if she played her cards right. She turned her back on him and said softly, "Zwei... I'm sorry."

"Hmm?" Zwei was puzzled by the sudden change in her tone of voice. Putting a hand on his hip, he said suspiciously, "Something wrong?"

Amy shook her head, making her red pigtails bounce. "I was just thinking that... it would have been better if we didn't meet. You wouldn't have gotten dragged into this mess and your life wouldn't be in danger because of man-eating lizards."

"It's ok." Zwei patted her on the back. "At least things were nice while it lasted."

Unknowingly, he accidentally made her poke her eye since she was rubbing it slightly. "Oww!" Amy put her hands over her eyes as tears began to flow.

"Hey! You alright?" Zwei turned her around and when she removed her hands, he panicked slightly at the tears. Before she could say something, a heroic look shone in his eyes and he said, "I've decided. I need to contribute something to all the people that have been so kind to me. You... and everyone have become a important part of my life and I am certain, that I want to become a part of the Soul Calibur universe."

Grabbing a vial, he took a big sip of the sparkling blue potion. Amy watched him anxiously and asked, "So... how do you feel?"

Zwei looked at the bottle and licked his lips. "It tasted like blueberry... and I don't feel anything really." A few more seconds passed before Zwei rolled his shoulders. "My arms feel kind of heavy though." Little did he know, he just drank the potion of extreme skills. Suddenly the door started moving as the lizards behind it started banging on the door. Talim was with them and she said, "Oh Amy! Zwei! I know you're in thereeeee. The wind told me you also have the cure with you. Please, step outside and hand it over and I promise you, the evil transformation won't be too painful for you."

Zwei panicked slightly and looked at the other four potions in his hand. Putting them down on Amy's dressing table, he picked up a bluish purple one. "Ok, this one next." Suddenly, Ein barked loudly and jumped at his feet, his doggy curiosity getting the better of him as he wanted to try the next one.

"No Ein, this isn't for you."

Ein barked and bit Zwei's leg, making him jump slightly. Some drops of potion spilled out and Ein immediately lapped it up as Amy gasped, "He's drinking it!"

"Ein!" Zwei picked up his puppy and started trying to get it to throw up. "Spit it out right now boy!" All of a sudden, Ein vanished and Zwei started looking around. "Where's my dog!" Unbeknownst to them, Ein had drank the potion of spirits.

"I-I don't know." Amy turned her head and scanned the room as well. "He... just vanished." This was bad. It seemed the potions could actually have serious effects. When the door started banging once more, Amy knew that time was not on their hand. If they found the cure, then there was still hope. And she should also do her part, to protect her father and their castle. Grabbing a vial of pink potion, she took a big sip.

"Amy!" Zwei coughed as smoke enveloped the room. Waving it away, he felt his hormones kick in as he looked at the beautiful white hair woman who was wearing a dress that was obviously too small for her size. Immediately turning away, he asked hesitantly, "Amy?"

"Look at me and I'll stab out your eyes."

Yep, that was Amy alright. Zwei muttered, "It looks like you took some kind of ageing potion."

"Now what?" Amy folded her hand over her chest that was barely restrained by her dress (which was already revealing in the first place. What was Raph thinking in letting her wear that in SCIV).

Zwei turned to the two remaining potion. One was the cure and one was still unknown. But things were getting really stupid at this point and it would be best if they search for Algol for help. Of course, they needed to get past the now evil wind priestess and a dozen crazy lizards. Grabbing the pink potion, Zwei chugged it down as well and in a flash of smoke, he also gained some years and was now a handsome man in his mid-twenties with some more noticeable white patches in his hair.

"You wanted to age as well?" said the sarcastic white hair woman. Behind her dressing screen, Amy had quickly changed into a different outfit that her father had bought for her before he realized that it was too big. But now, it fitted perfectly against her more mature form. When Zwei turned around to answer her, Amy blushed slightly at the sight of his leather pants and since it was tight, the buttons had come undone. "Erm, your pants-"

"We should get out of here," Zwei said shortly, picking up the bad luck potion and his sword with the other.

Amy picked up the real cure but for some reason, she felt the orb beckoning to her. Picking it up, she gasped as she saw something strange. "Kunpaetku is planning something evil down in Astaroth's stages. We have two options. Head there on our own or search for Algol for help."

The two stepped back as the door flew open. Talim stood there with a crossed expression on her usually serene face. "Now now, it's about time." She tilted her head and blinked at them with confusion. "Wait, who are you two?" Zwei held up his modified sword and Talim gasped. "My Cao Ankana... you're Zwei?!"

"That's right." Zwei's ocean blue eyes flashed as he said, "I don't want to hurt you miss Talim. Please stand aside."

Talim's dark chocolate eyes darkened and a slow wind started to stir around her as she unstrapped her elbow blades from her pink belt. "Who do you think you are to tell me what to do, you new recruit. Only the wind, my parents, my grandmother and Lord Kunpaetku can give me orders." Just then, she noticed the orb in Amy's hands. "That orb... why didn't I notice it before? The wind around it is-"

"Talim, did you get them?" Hilde called from far away as she head towards the wind priestess from the hallway.

"Amy! Now!" Zwei grabbed her hand and the two pushed Talim aside as she was distracted.

When the lizards snarled and tried to grab them, Zwei felt his newfound skills kick in. His heavy sword swung from both sides as he deftly switched them back and forth (he also pushed Amy back and forth to keep her away from danger during the fight). With a strong front kick, he sent one careening into the wall and it made an imprint on Raphael's wall. Slamming the hilt into the last one's stomach, he grabbed the slightly nauseous Amy and pulled her into a run.

Hilde's mouth dropped open at the hot pair that was coming towards her. "Who are you! State your name if you have any honor!"

Giving her a grin, he replied, "My name is German for two."

Hilde had to think about it for a moment before she realized and her eyes almost popped out of their sockets. "ZWEI?!"

In her surprise, Zwei and Amy also pushed her aside as they ran for the stairs to head down to the main floor of the castle. While running, Amy said, "It looks like that aging potion has really helped our chance of survival. Not only are we now very good-looking but our longer legs will help us escape easier."

"Our work's not done. We need to find Algol and get his help and save everyone," Zwei replied. But then he looked down at the ground sadly, wondering about what happened to his dog. "Ein..."

"Where do you think you're going? This is my castle..."

Amy gasped as she saw an image of her father with a shotgun in her orb. "Zwei! From the right!"

Zwei cried out in pain as a gunshot rang through the air and struck his right arm. They came to a stop as the rest of the evil turned cast blocked the stairs and the way leading to the front doors. Amy bit her lips and looked up at the tall German as he pushed her behind him protectively. "Stay back."

Stepping out from the shadows of a pillar, Raphael threw away the gun before pointing his Flambert at the two. "Who are you two?"

Cassandra smiled and looked up at Zwei. "You're just my type... anyway, want to join the dark side and pound Team Draw into the ground with me?"

Amy narrowed her eyes and held up her orb. "Forget it. Your future is 'Forever unmarried.'"

"WHAT DID YOU SAY!"

Cassandra stomped her foot down and was about to say something when all of a sudden, Sophitia laid a gentle hand on her sister's shoulder. "Calm down Cassandra." She then frowned and said to Amy, "Though I am now evil, I shall still show mercy. This is my warning to the two of you, leave at once. It's for your own good."

Zwei said curtly, "Yea... we'd love to do that if you guys can you know, lower your weapons and stand ten meter away from the door."

"Sophitia, thou are too soft." Yoshimitsu eyes flashed behind his mask. "Evil or not... they will die if they don't serve Lord Kunpaetku."

The rest of Raphael's team agreed and Ivy smirked as she ran a finger down her sword. "Your punishment will be severe if you don't agree. You two are already dressed like bad guys, why not just give in?"

Beside her, Raphael grinned and said to Amy, "As for you my pretty, why don't you ditch your boyfriend and be my lady instead?"

Amy immediately gave him a -I can't believe you just said that to me- look. "I'm Amy. And this is Zwei."

A few seconds passed by before everyone's mouths dropped down. "WHAT?!"

Just then Talim and Hilde caught up and they confirmed that it was the truth. "Guys! It is Amy and Zwei!" Talim held up some potion bottles and said, "I think they drank something to make them age."

For some silly reason, Kilik asked, "Wait, then where's that puppy he always has with him?"

Zwei put a hand on his bleeding arm and said sadly, "Ein... he..." But then he shook his head. "No time to get sidetracked. Come fight if you want but we're not joining the dark side."

"At least you will end your life, fighting with honor." Setsuka drew out her blade and when the light reflected off the chandelier and then her blade and into Zwei's eyes, she ran forward.

Everyone began charging towards the two but Raphael did tell them not to hurt his daughter. Zwei gritted his teeth as he fought against the skilled warriors. When Setsuka slashed his thigh, she said, "Let the wounds from my blade bring your demise."

"Sorry, I didn't catch all that!" Zwei punched her in the stomach with the hilt of his sword but he realized it was quickly becoming dire. Amy didn't have her rapier and she could only duck the attacks while occasionally kicking. She did manage to claw Siegfred in the face though.

"Ah! My face! The only part of my body that isn't protect by armor," howled Siegfried as he stumbled back.

"That's why I told you to wear a helmet like me!" shouted Hilde as she tried to stab Amy with her lance.

When Zwei got beaten to the ground by Kilik and Cassandra, he whispered, "So... this is the end?" All of a sudden, a fearsome wolf beast appeared out of nowhere and snarled. "Ein?" Zwei's eyes widened as he looked up at the strange creature that only had half a body and had a giant freaking crescent moon stuck out of it's body.

Ein howled before knocking everyone out of the way. The magical air around it affected Amy's orb to some degree and as she watched the fighting, she closed her eyes and just wished they could just be where Algol was to find help.

POOF

"What just happened?" Cassandra asked curiously as everyone stood there with their weapons out and wasn't fighting anyone in particular (Zwei and Amy had teleported out of there due to the orb's strange power which also causes forgetfulness from chap31).

"Tis a strange feeling I am feeling," Yoshimitsu said as he sheathed his sword and looked around. "It felt like something just escapeth out of our hands."

"No matter, we have things to do." Kilik slammed the butt of his staff down. "My Kali-Yuga and the new evil that rages in my soul tells me that there any many dark and evil things we must do so let's hurry to Lord Kunpaetku's side. But first..." Kilik grabbed a potion out of Talim's hand and took a sip. "Hmm, it tastes like cherry," Kilik said as he held up the red potion of bad luck.

Ivy was close by and when she saw the potion, she said dryly, "You just drank the potion of bad luck."

"Then what's this one?" Talim asked as she held up the last non-empty bottle.

"It's the cure." Ivy pursed her lips. "But then who drank the other potions? Oh, and did you find Amy and Zwei?" When the wind priestess shook her head, Ivy said, "Time to take care of that then. Maybe they took another way out instead of the front door."

After a moment's silence, Hilde snapped down her helmet and readied her lance. "Nothing to worry. My personal Wolfkrone elites will take care of them." Taking out her cellphone, she speedialed her elite group. "Gerhilde? Yes, it's me. Under my orders, I need you to arrest two people for me. Oh yes, I also need you and the rest of my guards to swear allegiance to Lord Kunapetku and join the dark side."

* * *

><p>Gerhilde and the rest of Hilde's top female warriors were getting confused by the phone call. They were standing guard outside Soul Land's gate with Algol's employees and some other warriors like Yoshimitsu's manji clan to make sure no lizard sneaks out and harm the civilians. Until they received this weird call. But as the loyal soldiers they were, they had to follow their leader no matter how what. Deep in their hearts, they were sure their beautiful and courageous princess knew what she was doing. "At once Princess Hilde."<p>

Beside them, Yoshimitsu's clan also got a call from their leader.

"Tis I, Yoshimitsu. I commandeth thee to cometh to my aid and join the dark side at this instant my brethren."

Ukon and Sakon, Yoshimitsu's right and left hand man arched an eyebrow at each other. "Eh?"

Marienbard, Jacqueline and Auguste along with some of Raphael's minions that fled Soul Land were also doing their part to defend the gates when suddenly, their master's loud and bossy voice reached out to them their the intercom above the paying booth besides the gate.

"Minions! I, the great and now more evil Raphael Sorel command you to come to my side at once and join Kunpaetku's growing army. If you do not show up, I shall have you fired."

Hearing that, all of Raphael's minions cheered. "Hooray!"

The intercom immediately carried Raphael's next words. "Shut up you pathetic and sniveling minions! If you don't come to my side at once, Aeon is the one who'll be doing the firing part."

At that, Raphael's minions groaned. "Awwwwwww..."

* * *

><p>"This is very bad," Edgemaster said grimly as he took a bite out of his cold corn dog.<p>

Currently, the three old powerful masters had sat down on a sidebench with some amusement park food they had taken from some of the empty fast food restaurants. And we all know... hamburgers can last twenty years.

Littered around their park bench were the bodies of the lizards that the three had knocked out. They could have kept beating up lizards all day but they were starting to think that it would be a better idea to just hurry up and find Kunpaetku's and end this mess already.

Munching on some fries, Olcadan said, "We should go and find Algol. With I, the powerful and intelligent Olcadan, the lovely wind elder Kalana (he proceeded to wink at Talim's grandmother), the average old immortal guy next to her (Edgemaster glared at him) and the Hero King Algol, I'm sure we can stop that vile priest."

Talim's grandmother tilted her head back and looked up at the starry night sky. "The wind... is distorted. I'm beginning to wonder if there are consequences that must be paid for making this strange new world."

"It's risky to play with time." Edgemaster stroked his white beard and murmured, "Soul Calibur may have granted Raphael-"

"Actually, it's Amy wish for this world," interrupted Olcadan.

Edgemaster huffed, "Soul Calibur may have granted Amy's wish, but I wonder if it has some other idea in mind. The saying 'Be careful what you wish for' contains wisdom that most youngsters these days, tends to dismiss."

Flipping open her white fan, Kalana sighed. "May the wind watch over us all..." Standing up, she dusted off her long white robe and brushed back her long white hair. "Come, we must hurry. The wind tells me that Algol... may be in danger."

* * *

><p>At Algols' office...<p>

Sitting behind his computer, Algol was typing up important information. Such as Voldo and Aeon's weaknesses. Just then, he got a phone call from his cellphone. "Hello? Algol speaking. What's happening? Any lizards break out of Soul Land yet?"

"Errrr... well... Hilde's soldiers, Yoshimitsu's clan and Raphael's minions aren't guarding the gates anymore and apparently, they've pledged their allegiance to Kunpaetku due to said leaders orders."

"WHAT?!" Algol jumped out of his black comfy office chair. "HOW IN THE WORLD DID THAT HAPPEN?!"

"Sir, you can check for yourself since you installed cameras everywhere in Soul Land (Algol opened up something on his computer and watched the video at light speed before returning to the conversation). But anyway, we're also held hostage now. So... can you save us? I think we're being led to the underground stages of the amusement park. Crud, Gerhilde is looking at me. Bye boss."

Algol took in a deep breath before pulling on his white hair. "Damn it all. I have to wiki up the other characters stuff and check out their frames and such on 8wayrun. But first..." He pointed to the audience and said, "For Darkwings13 readers, as you can see, we're in a dire situation. Also, last I heard, Darkwings13 has come down with a horrible cold and is hacking over her laptop and she looks pretty gross since she's dying. And she has two midterms coming up. But she sends you good wishes since it's Lunar New Year so... Happy Lunar New Year."

Next, Algol clicked on a few keys on his keyboard and opened up his email before giving the audience a sheepish smile. "As you can see, since I was busy doing my research on Kunpaetku, his minions and such, I neglected to check the reviews but fear not, Darkwings got Tira to send me a message by using her raven as a carrier pigeon. So I'll call Taki and get some ninjas from her Fu-Ma clan and ask Tira and Nightmare to get some of their malfested soldiers to protect you since you're Darkwings13 wonderful readers and reviewers. Which brings me money if you review..." The Hero King whispered that part to himself before bringing up the long list of reviews all the way from chap 35 as well as the new readers.

"Lizzy, glad to hear you like you lizard plushie. We'll make sure no real lizard get you and your fake plushie. Draconeriz, your wish has come true for this new chapter has come. Please enjoy and keep reading it over and over (so this Hero King can make money). DemonDanteElric, so glad to hear this is one of your favorite. Keep advertising us if you have time." Algol flashed the thumbs up before continue reading the reviews. DarkVampireOfTheNight, I hope your sharp teeth and high class taste buds can savor the sweet taste of comedy in this chapter, thank you very much. Iyana Shinzo 1216, and I'm glad to hear you are glad I updated! And the characters shall forever break the fourth wall!"

Algol laughed before drinking his purified Calibur water (melted from Soul Calibur's ice, this bottle costs $50 but its refreshing taste is out of this world). Next on the list, he read, "Ah! A long time supporter! ThalieXVII, at least you shall be entertained to see more people join the evil group. But no worries, Taki's and Nightmare's people shall protect you can enjoy watching this on your T.V in the comfort of your home. Highwayman Myth, sweet and short review. Happy to hear you like it so far. And dear Annie, it makes me happy to hear you have faith in our wonderful Darkwings13. I shall make sure to send an extra ninja for your protection. And next..." Algol cleared his throat loudly before saying, "Icy Cake! One of Darkwings13 own favorite author! Thank you for all the reviews for noticing that conflict with Aeon's identity. He doesn't know who he is, poor thing. Should he be Lizardman or Aeon? Well, it should be Aeon since it has a nice ring to it then. And it seems you got your wish to see the chars be evil. Look at Talim and that way she's smiling so evilly while walking down that stairs!"

He opened up a program on his computer and rewind the part where Talim walked down the stairs before Siegfried froze everyone with Soul Calibur. With a shake of his head, he muttered, "How am I going to handle this? I should be sitting back and getting my employees and Zasalamel to hand this." He closed the program before reading off the last of the reviews. "You're correct Keyboardsaurus! Mitsurugi never did lose that monopoly game, what a man! I just hope he didn't die so maybe he can take on all my troubles since he's like a one man army. Jarl of the North, thank to you too! Darkwings13 likes to feel manly when people think she's a man. Makes her feel tough! And you're awesome with that awesome review! Thanks and enjoy reading the next awesome chapter." Algol gave a quick wink before proceeding with the next review. "KuchikiGaara, your words must have made Darkwings13 blush! Such a kind compliment on her writing, thank you. Your and the reader's enjoyment are always her top priority and she's glad to hear that. DarkWizard, I can tell you're really having fun reading this and Darkwings13 is glad since she has fun writing it. Hope to hear from you soon and best of luck to your story as well. She is always happy to help those who asks for it."

Finished, Algol turned off the computer and said quietly, "Sometimes, it takes a man to just charge head on and worry about silly things like research. I, the Hero King with my powers can take this on..." Turning around, Algol pushed aside his chair and ripped off his suit which revealed his SCIV 1p outfit with its awesome armor. Next, two bubbles appeared in his hands and he blasted his glass windows in a really cool manner, letting the cool night air brush his face as he levitated slightly from the ground. "Kunpaetku, do not expect any mercy-ooof!"

He was squashed flat as Zwei and a white hair woman with an orb appeared out of nowhere and fell on top of him.

"WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE?!"

* * *

><p>Team Draw: 4463 points (since they've lost both Ashlotte's finger and left arm)<p>

Raphael's Team: 3623 (they have her right arm and right leg).

* * *

><p>*Mitsurugi makes some pretty funny sounds while fighting. But my favorite is when he shouts "Kaaats!" during battle lol.<p>

*I do not appreciate reviews that have one or two words that says update on it. If you're like Annie or Lizzy who writes that they really like the story and would really like me to update, then I'm perfectly happy with it. But if you're going to be rude and demanding, forget it. I go to university and I also work

*8wayrun is a competitive site full of character data on movesets and frames and guide to mastering a character. Spacing, zoning, punishes and such can be learned on there.


	39. Breaking In Is Hard

"Where's my Amy?! My castle isn't that big you know!" Raphael pounded on the arms of his throne inside his castle impatiently. The rest of his teammates was curently looking for his daughter so that they could serve Kunpaeteku but it seemed to be taking a rather long time. With Yoshimitsu's manji clan and Hilde's soldiers, he had expected them to find his beloved daugher in T-minus five minutes. It was already two hours! "Are you people goofing off!" shouted the rapier wielder.

From a distant corner of the castle, Yoshimitsu's voice echoed down the corridors. "Thy's castle is about forty thousand meters! We haven't even toucheth the third floor yet!"

"Not to mention, you have a million secret passageways!" Maxi shouted from the distant west wing as he leaned back tiredly, only to have the wall flip around and toss him into another secret passage. "Damn it!"

Sophitia entered the throne room with a forced smile and a vein pulsed on her forehead. "Raphael, we're wasting time here. Lord Kunpaeteku will be angry with us if we're late."

"But we can't leave my Amy!" protested the French Lord. He leaned back in his throne and ordered bossily, "Get out of here and find my daughter at once, you lazy wench!"

With the evil pill affecting her, Sophitia cracked. "LOOK HERE YOU PRISSY FRENCHMAN! MAYBE YOU SHOULD HAVE MARRIED SOMEONE AND GET YOUR WIFE TO LOOK AFTER YOUR KID LIKE MY ROTHION IS LOOKING AFTER MY CHILDREN! OR YOU SHOULD HAVE HIRED A BABYSITTER! THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT! WHY ARE YOU JUST SITTING AROUND AND MAKING US DO ALL THE WORK?! I WANT TO HURRY UP AND TAKE OVER THE WORLD FOR LORD KUNPAETEKU SO THAT I CAN GO AND SPEND TIME WITH MY CHILDREN AGAIN!"

Raphael jumped out of his throne and snarled at her. "Don't you dare speak to me in that tone of voice woman! And how dare you compare my baby to your brats!"

"Please! Calm down!" Talim entered the room with her baby bird, Alun in her arms. She sighed and looked at them with round brown eyes. "It's not right for us to fight with each other. Especially if..." Talim's evil side showed through. "YOUR VOICES ARE ANNOYING ME AS THE WIND CARRIES IT TO ME! I CAN HEAR YOU ALL THE WAY FROM THE DAMN COURTYARD!"

Everyone suddenly showed up and they gasped. Kilik let out a manly tear with Cassandra and said in awe, "It's her first time swearing. Our little priestess is becoming so evil. Lord Kunpaeteku will be so proud of her."

"Cheep." Alun chirped and just yawned sleepy, not caring if his mistress was evil.

Talim pet her bird on the head before saying, "The wind told me that Lord Kunpaeteku is getting very impatient and that Zasalmel's team is on their way to infiltrate the cult that's now relocated to Astaroth's stages."

"But what about my Amy?!" cried Raphael.

Ivy crossed her arms as she said, "Speaking of which, none of us here was able to find that kid, Zwei."

"Maybe they're playing hooky," said Cassandra with a slight shrug.

"MY AMY WOULDN'T PLAY HOOKY WITH THAT BOY!" Raphael stomped down and snapped his fingers. "Marienbard! Jacqueline! Auguste!"

The three followers of the ancient tribe showed up at his command and kneeled down. In a tired voice, they asked, "What is it, master?"

"Did you see where that Zwei went?"

The three looked at each other before anwering. "No my lord."

Raphael rubbed his eyes tiredly. "Fine." He looked at all the people assembled and said, "We shall go report to Lord Kunpaeteku and then I shall ask him if he will give me aid to find Amy, so that she may follow me in the right path of evilness." Stepping down the stairs from his throne, he smoothed back his hair. "After all, like father like daughter."

Hilde rolled her eyes and waved for her soldiers to move out. "Everyone! For the glory of evil, we move out!" She smiled at her boyfriend, Siegfried. "Once Lord Kunpaeteku takes over the world, I shall ask him to give me some more lands for our loyalty, and we shall get married and reign forever." Her eyes flashed with excitement. "I shall rule over Wolfkrone with an iron fist and turn it into a dictatorship."

Everyone walked out and made gagging noises as the German couple kissed, except for Kilik. The monk gave them the thumbs up and said, "Once I turn Xianghua evil, we shall be even more closer than you two."

"Oh, what do you have in mind?" Siegfried asked, slightly intrigued by how the monk would act since he's now evil.

A grin crossed Kilik's handsome features. "We're going win the award for the cutest villain couple of course."

Setsuka raised up her umbrella and her eyebrows drew upward. "Does such an award even exist?"

Kilik shrugged and smiled. "Oh you know, people always get alot of weird name achievements and trophies when they play the game. I'm sure I can convince the company to add in an evil ending where me and Xianghua live happily ever after when we take over China."

Just then, Siegfried gasped. "Wait! We forgot about Ashlotte's right arm and leg. We need to fetch them so that Kunpateku will be pleased."

Maxi grinned. "No worries." He walked over to a wall and tapped on a painting of a giant pear in a sea of strawberries. It opened up a secret passage to Raphael's treasury and as the pirate walked in, he said, "I remember this passage best since it used Raphael's ugliest painting."

* * *

><p>At Algol's office...<p>

Lowering the magazine, Zwei's sea blue eyes peeked over the covers to the white hair lady sitting across from him. He coughed once and when her red eyes met his, he asked, "Why do you keep staring at my chest?"

She crossed her arms and leaned back against the plush black sofa. "I was merely admiring your tattoo."

He quirked an eyebrow as he dropped the magazine and propped his legs up on the circular table between them. "Are you starting to remember something? Like your name? Maybe it's Luna or something."

She shook her head and looked down at the pink orb. "Nothing comes to mind."

The two looked up as Algol reentered his office with a big bandage over the whalloping bruise on his forehead. Zwei let out a wolfish whistle. "Wow, it's really swelling isn't it."

Algol glared at them grumpily. "You know that I could sue the both of you for this."

"Hey, it's not our fault," Zwei replied defensively. "You just happened to be under us when we randomly fell down from out of nowhere."

Algol pointed to the two of them and said, "You two nearly broke my neck! If I wasn't the Hero King, this injury could have been fatal."

The woman said dryly, "Have fun sueing us. It's not like I have anything to lose, considering I don't even know who I am." She held up her orb. "The most you can get out of me is this thing. You could try to use this as a paperweight if want."

Zwei held up a hand. "No, I'll take responsibility for this if he wants. After all, I'm heavier than you so it's mostly my weight that landed that bruise on his head."

"No, I think it was my orb that cracked his head," the woman replied emotionessly.

"It's ok, I'll take the blame. I'm broke so the worst that can happen to me is jail time." He rolled his muscled shoulders. "With my physique, I can handle it."

The white hair woman held up a hand. "Frankly, I don't care about you but I don't like to be in people's debts. And like I said, I believed it was my orb that cracked his head."

"No, I-"

"WILL YOU TWO SHUT UP?!" Algol rubbed his head and groaned. "You two are giving me a headache." He jogged over to his high-tech computer and furiously began typing. After some time, he glowered at the two and said, "You two, if you don't want to get sued, you're both going to be doing something for me." He pointed at Zwei. "Especially you, Zwei. You're going to be a future member of the cast and now is the perfect time to prove your worth." His eyes moved up and down Zwei's grown body. "Especially since you're now a man."

Zwei yawned and leaned back against the dark sofa. "Fine. Let's just get this started."

"I would like to focus on the matter of my memory loss but it seems that for now, this matter of your will have to take precedent," said the woman.

Algol folded his hands together and rested his chin on them. "We have an evil cult that has taken the underground stages of an amusement park called Soul Land. The leader is Kunpaeteku and he's building up an army of evil golems, man-eating lizards, and possessed Soul Calibur characters along with their respective allies. I've received news that Hilde's soldiers of Wolfkrone, Yoshimitsu's Manji clan and Raphael's minions have bolstered up a great deal of the cult's powers."

"You want us to go on a suicide mission." She cast a disdainful look his way.

Algol wagged his finger at her. "Course not. I, the Hero King is capable of taking on an army alone. We also have Zasalamel's team of Calibur characters that have not fallen prey to the darkness, along with Edgemaster, Olcadan and the wind elder, Kalana. Victory is very much possible."

Just then, the door to his office smashed open and Astaroth, in all his raging golem form roared. "I will get my wife back!"

Algol coughed and said, "I forgot to mention, we have a very angry golem wielding a very large axe on our side."

With a cough, the woman said, "He's certainly red."

"That's because it's his SCIV 1p outfit," Algol replied smugly. Standing up, he pointed heroically in the direction of Soul Land. "Now, let's get going!"

"Wait!"

Everyone turned and looked at Zwei. The tall man stood up and said, "We should at least come up with a temporary name for her." He pointed to the white hair female. "It's kinda awkward if we don't."

Algol tapped on his chin and looked her up and down. "Since she's wearing all purple, so how about Violet?"

The woman shook her head. "I don't like six letter names."

"Uhh... why?" asked Zwei.

"It's bad luck."

Zwei crossed his arms and said, "How about... Violeta? Violy? Violmy? Vivian?"

Algol held up a hand. "Stick to the violet part of the name."

"Fine. How about... Viola? There's only five letters," suggested Zwei.

The woman shrugged. "It isn't unpleasant sounding to the ears. Alright."

"LET'S HURRY UP AND RESCUE MY WIFE YOU MAGGOTS!" Astaroth swung down his axe and carved a large crater in Algol's office.

When the dust cleared, Zwei grinned and put a hand on his hip. "I think we have a pretty good change of winning."

* * *

><p>At the entrance to Kunpaeteku's cult...<p>

"Zassy, my watcher told me this is the entrance to their cult!" Tira squealed proudly as she held up her most talented, vicious, and dark raven she named Cuddlywuddly.

Team Draw was unsure of how to react to this current situation. Here they were, stuck underground in a moldy giant tunnel filled with green light lamps of evil powers, the giant doors were blocked by two of Kunpaeteku's guards and if they were discovered, it was probably game over. But they couldn't help but be more absorbed in the fact that Tira had named her most beloved and vicious crow Cuddlywuddly. Finally, they all decided in their heads that it was best to focus on the important matter at hand and not look at the glaring black raven.

Taki adjusted her mask and leaned over the crevice walls they were currently holed in. "We have two courses of actions. We can quickly dispatch those two and invade the cult. However, that will alert Kunpaeteku and security inside will be strengthened."

"What's the second option," asked Yun-Seong.

"We can use our wits and get in," replied the ninja stoically.

"Let's bust down the doors!" Nightmare said excitedly. "And then I'll have their souls!"

Zasalamel didn't reply to that comment of stupidity. He just reached into his pockets for some of Nightmare's favourite brand of cereal called Souls (mentioned in chapter 27) and slapped them towards Nightmare's helmet. "There's your souls."

Nightmare's spirit absorbed it and he said, "You know, this cereal is good and all but I was talking about real souls." He gagged when Zasalamel threw some more his way.

The dark skinned man thumped the ground with his scythe and said, "We need two volunteers to go and distract the guards and wait wait! Tira!" Zasalamel tried to stop her but she just plopped her raven into his arms and headed out while dragging the Chinese girl with her.

"Hey hey!" protested Xianghua as Tira dragged her towards the door. The chinese girl's heart beated frantically as the two came to a stop right in front of the muscled and tattoed guards. "Hi?" Xianghua squeaked nervously.

The team chewed on their fingernails while Cervantes grunted, "At this rate, is we can make it three steps into the cult, I'll eat my hat."

The two guards readied their guns at the two girls. "Who are you two?"

"Isn't that Tira and Xianghua from Soul Calibur?" asked the second guard.

Tira waved at them and said, "Hey hey, we're travelling performers and we're here to entertain your Kunpaty boss."

Xianghua facepalmed and whispered, "Tira, they already know who we are."

The guards stared at Tira and said, "Cut it out. We know you're Tira and Xianghua." They both aimed their guns at the girl's hearts. "Don't try anything funny and maybe our lord will spare you and turn you evil."

Tira waved away their guns and giggled. "I'm already evil so whatever. And hey now, I said we're travelling performers, all the way from... uhhh... Canada!" She gestured to herself and her partner. "We just recently undertook some serious plastic surgery so that we can look like our favorite Soul Calibur characters." An expression of fondness crossed her face as she hugged herself. "Tira is so pweety and cool. Who wouldn't want to look like her right?" The bipolar girl jumped up and down, her brown mismatched pigtails bobbing with the movement. "Anyway, we're way late! Can you hurry up and open the door so that we can perform? We have a long list of places we need to go so let's make this snappy."

The guards looked at each other for a moment before one of them asked, "Plastic surgery? Really? What was it like?"

Tira nudged the chinese girl and Xianghua stammered, "I-it was kinda painful but we've recovered. I-I'm really happy with my new look. After all, Xianghua is very beautiful."

"What kind of acts will you two be performing?" asked the guards.

Xianghua fiddled with her vest. "You know, ermm... ci-circus acts."

"Like what?" said the guards suspiciously. "And we didn't hear Lord Kunpaeteku speak about performers."

Tira swelled with feigned anger and she flicked one of the guards on the forehead. "What sort of uneducated fools are you two, to have never heard of the Travelling Twins of Canada! We perform for poor people, rich people, fat people, skinny people, animals, queens, prisidents, prime minsters! How can you not have heard of us? Did you live under a rock or something?"

One of the darkly dressed guard glanced up at the ceiling of the underground cult. "Sort of."

"But anyway, you're twins?" asked the other guard with a flabbergasted expression.

Xianghua spoke up. "You obviously won't be able to tell since we underwent plastic surgery. No kidding."

From their hidden spots, everyone there were sweating like mad, wondering when the horrible lie was going to be exposed. Rock rubbed his eyes and said, "I hope the spirits are with them."

Tira kicked the ground and huffed. "Hurry up and let us inside. Kunpaty won't be happy you kept him waiting! We've traveled a long way to get here and my feet is all sore!"

Xianghua hastily added, "We were supposed to be in there fifteen minutes ago. If you keep your boss waiting any longer, he'll probably do something nasty to you."

The guards grunted, "Do you have any paperworks?"

Tira whispered to Xianghua. "This isn't working. It's time for you to do your crybaby move."

"Wait, what?" Before Xianghua could further question her, Tira kick her from behind. Falling to the ground and scraping her knees, Xianghua wailed and instinctively flailed her arms and legs to perform one of her signature moves, the one most people refer to fondly as the crybaby move.

Tira stomped her foot down and said, "Look at what you did! You made her cry!"

"Bu-but we didn't do anythin-"

Tira slapped both of them in the face. "Shut up with the excuses. All we wanted was to make some money and perform for Kunpaky but now look! We're totally mad and we're leaving! Have fun getting turned into toads or something by your boss!"

The guards raised up their arms in surrender. "Fine! We'll let you two in. Just follow us and keep your mouths shut."

Xianghua happily leaped up to her feet to follow them inside. "Ok! Let's get going."

"I should have asked to guard the doors on the west side," muttered one of the guards.

When they left, Seong-Mina turned towards Zaslamel. "Now what? They got in but we're still stuck in here." She waved her arms and said, "Hey! Can't you just use magic to teleport us in there?"

Zasalamel replied, "If it was that easy, don't you think I would have already done that instead of listening to Tira's lies of being twin performers who had plastic surgery." He gestured to the doors. "There are wards to prevent me from using magic to enter. It looks like we'll have to find another way to meet up with those two-" His sentence was cut off as the doors opened and a bloody Xianghua peeked out.

Everyone screamed and Hwang shouted, "What happened to you!"

Xianghua waved away their concerns. "It's not my blood. Tira just... went into gloomy mood when one of the guards said they don't understand why someone would undergo plastic surgery to look like Tira."

At that, everyone sighed and Cervantes said, "So we wasted all that time listening to Tira come up with a crappy lie and then she decided to kill the guards. We should have done that in the first place and save ourselves time."

They all looked up as the alarms sounded and Zasalamel replied tiredly, "Let's just get going."

* * *

><p>Before we get to the chase sequences, disastrous traps and strange encounters, let's rewind backward to Raphael's team arrival...<p>

Lounging in their luxurious room, the team was enjoying themselves. Maxi was resting in a lounge chair, eating some grapes and he said, "I can stay here forever."

Ivy was examining the books on a bookshelf and she said, "There are many books on vile and evil concoctions. They will be very interesting to research for my alchemy projects."

Most of the people were obviously very happy, except for a certain Frenchman. Raphael was sulking in a corner and he said dismally, "I want my Amyyyyyyy!"

Everyone, in their unforgiving evil state said curtly, "Shut up."

Sophitia was petting Talim on the head as the young wind priestess laid her head on her lap and was currently napping. "Please keep it down Raphael, Talim is having her catnap." The pretty Greek mother smiled. "Seeing her like this brings out my motherly side."

"I have a fatherly side that's seriously needing my Amyyy!" shouted Raphael.

In her sleep, Talim hugged Alun alittle closer and yawned. "Wind... candies... my bird... Raphael..." Everyone looked over in surprise as she said his name. Until Talim added in her sleep, "Shut up."

Yoshimitsu and Setsuka laughed. "It looks like someone is trying to give you a hint."

The room erupted into bickering arguments and such until Kunpaeteku arrived. Dressed in a dark and flowing dark robe, he stroked his black goatee and said, "Ahh, how are you all doing?"

"I want my Amyyyy!"

Everyone pointed at Raphael. "We have a slight problem over here."

Kunpaeteku laughed. "I've heard. Raphael, don't worry about it. I have found your daughter." From behind his back, he showed them Amy (from SCIII). The evil priest had used technology along with some of Ashlotte's blueprint to craft an Amy doll, that will hopefully calm down Raphael and strengthen his allegiance. He patted the mechanical doll on the back and said, "Amy, show your father how well you are."

"Amy," said the doll emotionlessly.

Raphael joyfully ran to embrace his daughter. "Amy! I'm so glad to see you!" He patted her head fondly. "You even look younger!"

"Amy," replied the doll.

Everyone on his team stared. "I think something's wrong with her."

At this time, Talim woke up and she rubbed her eyes sleepily. Looking at the doll, she read the wind around and said, "The wind around it... isn't Amy. I don't think that's your daughter, Raphael."

Raphael immediately scoffed. "Nonsense, you don't think I can tell if this isn't my daughter?"

Talim pouted. "I can tell you that the wind doesn't think so."

"Who cares about your wind. This is my daughter," Raphael said confidently, patting the doll on the head as he stood up.

In response, the doll said, "Amy."

Before they could discuss the subject any further, the alarms went off. Kunpaeteku immediately narrowed his eyes and said, "Intruders... damn them all." He said to Raphael's team, "I need all of you to go and make sure that nothing ruins my plans. My army of Astaroths and Lizardman shall assist you but I'll need them to guard Ashlott'e body parts." He began to pace. "Astaroth is sure to be coming for his wife. We must capture him and get his heart, so that my plan for world domination will succeed."

Hilde raised up her hand. "Lord Kunpaeteku, may I make Wolfkrone into a dictatorship and have some more lands?"

"Of course." He opened his arms and said gladly, "I couldn't hope for better, princess Hilde. And is that Ashlotte's arm and leg?" When Siegfried handed over the appendments, Kunpateku laughed victoriously. "Ahahaha! Excellent! Well done! This will be perfect for my next evil plan." He tucked the heavy arm and leg under his armpit and said, "Now, will you all kindly take care of those pesky intruders?"

Enthusiastically, Hilde got up and said, "We have three major groups. I with my army, will take Siegfried, Sophitia and Cassandra to defend the east side."

Yoshimitsu stood up and adjusted his wooden arm. "Thou has suggested a very good plan. I and my clan, shall take Setsuka, Ivy and Talim and we'll take the west side."

Raphael crossed his arms. "I'll take the south side with my minions and I'll be going with Maxi, Kilik and Amy then."

Kunpaeteku quickly spoke up, realizing the danger of Raphael discovering that his daughter was fake if he spent too much time with her. "Wait! Raphael, you would bring your daughter and endanger her?"

Raphael thought about his words carefully. "I... I suppose that's right. Good gracious, I'm sorry abut that Amy." He hugged her and said, "Stay here and watch T.V or something sweet heart. I'll be back soon."

"Amy," repeated the doll.

Raphael smiled proudly and wiped away a manly tear. "That's my girl." As he stood up, he then realized something. "Wait! I only have two people!"

Maxi smoothed back his hair. "I am more than enough."

Immediately, Raphael snorted. "You're probably the first to die."

"Guys." Talim was walking out the door with her Ivy and she sighed at them. "We're all leaving. You men need to get a move on it as well."

Her bird in her arms agreed with her as she walked out. "Cheep."

"Hmph." Raphael flourished his cape and proceeded to leave with Maxi and Kilik. "You two had better not screwed up."

Kilik's eyes lit up with the fires of determination in his soul. "For Xianghua..."

"What about Xianghua?" asked the two men.

Giving them a dirty look, the monk replied, "You weren't supposed to question me in that moment."

"Ma-master!"

The three men turned as Marienbard appeared with Auguste and Jacqueline. Raphael sighed tiredly and said, "What is it, minions? Can you not see we're heading for the south side of the base."

The pink hair servant, Jacqueline, gasped and breathed hard from the hard run. "Bu-but-"

Raphael shushed her. "Not another word on rushing me. Such audacity! I shall take my own good time getting there without you three fools pestering me. I hate it when people pester me."

"Mitusurugi has invaded the south side..." Auguste keeled over with a sword in his back and Raphael, Kilik, and Maxi leaped backward from the man wearing the wolf mask.

"What in the!" Maxi asked the green haired girl, Marienbard, "How did that samurai get in?"

"We don't know, but he burst through the guarded doors and went berserk He was saying something about killing everyone here since those lizards ate his favorite socks or something." Just then, Marienbard remembered something. "He also shouted for his teammates in a really threatening manner. I think he said something about them abandoning him or something."

Raphael pursed his lips and said, "I can not possibly fail so soon. Damn that samurai..." They left the common room and headed down the greenly lit tunnel. As he walked, Raphael said, "My trap to stop Mitsurugi must be elegant, amazing and something that will represent me. Aha!" He snapped his fingers in triumph. "Unleash five hundred blood sucking bats into his path. I will see him drained dry of blood... muhahahhaha!"

"You and your bats," Kilik and Maxi said at the same time.

* * *

><p>With each team defending the east, west and south side, Kunpaeteku thought he could rest easy. But when he headed back to his room and turned on his giant T.V screen, he turned it on and was dismayed to see that Mitusurgi was becoming a very big problem in the south side. But what was even more troubling was the north side. His army of robotic Astaroths and lizardmen were falling faster than dead flies against the might of Edgemaster and Olcadan. It looks like he was going to have to do something drastic. Picking up his evil walkie talkie, he held it to his lips and said, "Close the cavern doors and turn on the traps. I'll send those old elders on their way to the afterlife for getting in my way."<p>

* * *

><p>"Your skills are no match for mine, you lack training!" Edgemaster said to Olcadan as he raised his fist. Two fingers pop out and he poked a lizard in the eye, sending it screaming and running away like a girl.<p>

Olcadan scoffed and said, "That's it? That was nothing! Watch this!" He ducked beneath a swung of an axe and jumped up, bashing his head onto a robotic Astaroth which made the giant machine go haywire, and in a few seconds, the force of the blow made it explode.

The two continued bickering, fighting and trying to impress the uninterested Kalana. After some time, piles and piles of metal parts and unconscious lizards laid around their feet on the cold hard ground. Kalana closed her fans and said, "You know... the wind is quite impressed with the both of you."

"Really?" Edgemaster and Olcadan's eyes gleamed at the praise.

The wind elder nodded briefly as she walked away. "It's hard to believe that with all that shouting, you two still had the energy to fight. It was a miracle that the tunnel didn't cave in." Her wise eyes met theirs as she said, "Kunpaeteku is now alerted to our presence thanks to our noisy entrance. Things will only become more difficult from here on out." True to her prediction, a giant stone wall came down and blocked their path. They didn't have the option to turn back since a second giant wall also came down. Knocking on it, Kalana looked at it with distaste and said, "The carvings on there inhibits my magic. I can't use my wind powers."

"No worries Kalana," Olcadan said reassuringly. "I will knock it down for you!" He whipped out The Ancient and made it turn into Rock's mace. He slammed it repeatedly on the wall a few times but it didn't even crack.

Edgemaster stroked his white beard and examined the carvings carefully. Reading them, he murmured, "Olcadan, these runes are similar to the ones in the Grand Labyrinth that you were trapped in." When the owl came up beside him and hooted in surprise, Edgemaster said grimly, "It seems that Kunpaetku has uncovered some very powerful secrets of the ancient past."

"You know what's even more grim?" Olcadan began touching the runes in a specific order and they began to glow a bright blue. Finally, two holes appeared and Olcadan said, "We now have access to the stone's veins. I believe that sticking our hands in, is the key to opening this wall."

Kalana looked at the dark holes suspiciously and said, "Even without the wind, I know that sticking hands into the holes is not a good idea." She gasped slightly when Olcadan held onto her hands. "Ol-Olcadan?"

"For you, I would gladly risk anything," said the owl man, blinking his large bird eyes at her.

Edgemaster felt a vein throbbed on his forehead but he said calmly, "Actions hold more meaning than words." With that, he stuck his hand into the hole. Beside him, Olcadan hoote in annoyance and followed suit. Edgemaster ignored it and wiggled his fingers, wondering how this was going to free them. At first, his face was as smooth as waters. But then an expression of discomfort came across it and he began trying to pull it out. Unfortunately, it was stuck. "What could this be?"

Olcadan was openly struggling to pull out his hand and he shouted, "Why does it itch so much!"

Kalana watched as the old men groaned and writhed in discomfort while trying to pull out their hands. "What's happening? How do you two feel?"

Edgemaster dug his nails into the palm of his untrapped hand and groaned, "It feels like a million fire ants is biting me."

Clawing at the wall, Olcadan hooted, "What kind of damn trap is this?! If I knew this was what it felt like, I would never stick my hand in!"

Kalana wringed her hands. It's not like she could spray insecticide into the hole since she didn't have any in the first place! Grabbing onto their shoulders, she began trying to pull them out. "Don't lose hope. The end is only for those who lose faith in their paths."

Edgemaster and Olcadan tried to act manly and control their pain by refusing to open their mouth which would let out their cries and grunts of pain. In the worse case scenario, they might scream like frightened young girls so they did their best to clamp their mouths shut. In their minds, they were telling themselves that if their hands didn't get chewed off or something, they would train themselves for situation such as this in the future.

"Hey, it's a dead end! Viola, are you sure this is the right path?"

"This is the path my orb told us to follow, therefore, it is only natural for me to infer that it is the correct one, Zwei."

"Let's just smash down the wall and see then." There was a brief pause before the manly voice resumed. "Astaroth, can you handle this?"

"Stand aside maggots."

Olcadan, Kalana and Edgemaster winced as the wall behind them broke into bits. Coughing, Kalana flipped open her fan and fanned away the dust. "The Hero King?"

"The one and only," replied Algol as he stepped past the crumbling wall. Looking at Olcadan and Edgemaster, he asked, "What's wrong with them?"

"None of your concern," snapped the two old men at the same time. The two struggled even harder to get their hands free.

Zwei watched for a bit before jerking his head towards them. "Come on Viola."

"No need." Viola pointed at the wall as the runes all began to flash and turn blue. A trembling sound vibrated through the tunnel and it fell apart, which released the two old men who held up their hands that was quickly swelling up to the size of very big baseball glove.

"That's gotta hurt." Astaroth glanced at the two briefly before continuing onward, worried for the safety of his wife and desperate to free her. Because they had booked a flight to Hawaii for their honeymoon the next day and they needed get packing so that they could enjoy their newlywed romance. That's if they didn't die... "Come on maggots, my wife is waiting for me."

Zwei said to the two old men, "I heard that... spit helps with the soreness." With that, he jogged out of there with Viola following close behind him.

Kalana patted Edgemaster and Olcadan on the back before saying, "We should... hurry. The wind says it's not safe to linger here."

"Did the wind say when the swelling will go down?" asked the two old men.

With a sigh, Kalanan shook her head and walked out while fanning herself. "You could try the spit suggestion."

Algol watched them head off before taking out his cellphone. "Kami, how are you and your brother holding up?"

"We're good daddy. But can you adjust your hidden camera in your hair? The viewers should have a clearer picture of what's happening down here."

Algol adjusted his braided ponytail. "Anyway, how are the reviews coming in for the show?"

"It's ok for now dad. But you should hurry and save Ashlotte before Kunpaeteku takes over the wold and kills the audience. Anyway, should I thank them for today and let you focus on the battle ahead?"

"Yes, do that for me sweetie."

* * *

><p>At Algol's office..."<p>

Kami and Arcturus waved at the audience from their chairs. Algol's son was currently working out the probability of success while Kami was reviewing the important list of reviewers on her own laptop. "Hi everyone, it's been awhile! Darkwings finished her winter semester on April 30th but she was hooked on this awesome video game called Dragon Age Origin and forgot to update. But after all that waiting, here's the next chapter!"

Kami smiled sheepishly and kicked her legs back and forth before continuing. "Anyway, time to address the reviews. To Joey 066, my father will most certainly be kicking butts in the next chapter or so. As for the guests like Link, Spawn, etc, they can't be involved in this. We can't risk them dying like Kratos cuz then we'll get sued. Thanks for the snacks and we wish you good luck in protecting yourself so that you may live and read the next chapter."

Arcturus turned from his seat and smiled politely. "ThalieXVII, I agree that Cervantes fuzzy pajamas is quite appalling. I will make a mental note and tell my father to buy him some new one for Christmas." He leaned back in his chair and gestured to the window. "Amy's new world has certainly wrought a great change. Zasalamel is probably feeling all self righteous in protesting against this world. Anyway, we are glad to have Nightmare's servants and Taki's fellow ninjas protect such an esteemed guest."

Kami waved her hand for attention. "Fabcorp, thanks for reading. I'll send Darkwings a note to have her check your story when she has time. And DarkWizard, it's so nice to hear from you. Thank you for the heartwarming comment, I'm sure Darkwings is very happy to see that you're enjoying the story. She'll message you soon!" Kami clapped her hands and gasped at the next comment. "Sabranime88, how could you not love Talim? She's the most kind and compassionate character character ever. Untainted by evil and pure hearted-"

Kami and her brother looked over to the computer screen as they heard Talim's evil laugh. "Ha! Oh Tira, I'm no longer the goody goody-"

Arcturus quickly turned off the screen and forced a smile on his face. "Anyway, Darkwings is certainly not fond of Cassandra and Yun-Seong, due to their cockiness. That is an honest reply but if there's one thing she respects about them, is their love for either family or country. In the story, their traits are exaggerated and such but she most certainly doesn't portray them in an intentional hated way. Truth is, the character she doesn't like most is Amy. So I guess you can tell that she's happy Amy turned into Viola not only for story purposes, but because she prefers Viola to Amy. Of course, everyone has different preferences and she respects that. Thanks for reading and reviewing!"

Arcturus leaned over his sister and peered at her laptop screen before grinning. "Comix, I think the question has been answered for you now. Nightmare eats things the same way he devours souls. He absorbs them since he's an evil spirit!" He laughed with good humor. "We're glad you're enjoying this and though addiction is bad, in this case, it's wonderful! Thank you so much for the review! And guest, whoever you are, we thank you from our heart for your time on this as well."

Kami beamed and chirped merrily, "We hope to see you soon! If Darkwing's spring semester isn't too stressful, she hopes to update soon. Bye everyone!"

* * *

><p><strong>Trivia<strong>

*****Six letter names were considered bad luck by sailors for naming their ships xD

*Spit contains healing properities because it prevents infection and aids in the healing process. That's why animals lick their wounds :D

*The painting of the giant pear in a sea of strawberries was mentioned in one of my stories, A Journey of Fate. In that one, it the secret passage led down to a dungeon.

*With Darkwings taking multivaraite calculus and ochem 2, it's unlikely the next chapter will up for some time. She'll miss you and she's sorry for the wait again.

:(

* * *

><p><strong>Note: Hey guys, is there anyone interested in roleplay? There's a forum currently for Soul Calibur and we would love more people to join! There's still plenty of chars you can choose to roleplay as. Lol, I took Talim and Zwei sorry x)<strong>

**But if you're interested, contact me by a pm. Or, you can contact ThalieXVII! She's one of the admin for the site and I know she'll be more than happy to assist you with joining. Thank you, have a nice day and enjoy that spring weather! **


	40. How To Use A Log

Near the south part at Astaroth's underground cult stage...

Stepping over the bodies of fallen lizards and broken Astaroths, Mitsurugi sheathed his sword and smoothed back his hair. "Not even the king of hell could stand against my blade."

"How about the Lord of the Night?"

Mitsurugi looked up to see Raphael leaning against the cave wall on the upper level. A perplexed expression crossed his face as he said, "Why are you struggling to hold on to two giant garbage bags while trying to look cool?"

Raphael rolled his eyes as he continued holding onto the shaking bags. "Silly farmer peasant. Do you not understand that one as noble and powerful as myself needs to look sauve and majestic at all times?"

The samurai jerked his thumb behind him. "We're in Astaroth's stage of caves, slime, green slime, slime water, crazy lizards, ugly Astaroth robots and even uglier stage decorations. Who the hell cares about how you look in this kind of situation?"

Raphael waved absentmindedly at their hideous surrounding. "My presence alone glorifies this place and rids it partially of its hideousness. But enough talk, I'm here for one reason and one reason only." The Frenchman held up the two shaking bags and laughed evilly. "Mitsurugi! I give you one chance. Join Kunpaeteku and take the pill of evilness, and I shall spare you."

Just then, Kilik and Maxi showed up with their own giant garbage bags. Unlike Raphael however, who looked rather decent and well, it looked like they were viciously attacked by something that likes to bite, judging by all the bite marks on their bodies. Raphael drawled, "Why don't you show up after the sun has risen. For Calibur's sake, you guys are slower than my servants!"

Maxi hissed, "Do you know how much blood me and Kilik had to sacrifice to capture all four hundred bats?!"

Raphael held up his bags. "Well maybe you two should have bleed faster. I caught all of mine in ten minutes."

"THAT'S BECAUSE YOU'RE A VAMPIRE!" shouted the pirate and the monk.

"Whatever." Raphael turned around and looked back down at Mitsurugi. "Well! You've heard! We have here, six hundred blood sucking vampire bats. If you do not join us, you will have every single drop of famer's blood sucked dry from your body."

Mitsurugi stared at them for a whole five minutes, without blinking... because he was half awed and half stunned by how dumb their idea was. Finally, he cracked his knuckles and rolled his neck. "Bring it you girly Frenchman."

Raphael put a hand to his heart. "How dare you!" He shouted to Kilik and Maxi, "Did you hear that? He called me girly!"

Maxi and Kilik looked at each and began laughing.

A vein popped on Raphael's forehead and he hissed down to the samurai, "You shall feel my wrath!" He threw the bags down and held out his hands as if in worship. "Feed on him my pets!" He glared at Maxi and Kilik. "Hurry up!"

"Jeez, hold on to your pants man," said Maxi as he and Kilik as they opened their bags of bats.

When the bats that Kilik and Maxi also joined the released bats that was flying around, the giant cavern they were in turned very dark. The light from the creepy green torches flickered as the bats screeched and flapped their ebony dark wings. But that was all that happened... for another five minutes. Six hundred bats flying around in a circle in the air... over and over and over.

Raphael's mouth was opened and he gaped, "Why... why aren't they sucking his blood? It's been five minutes!" He scowled at the two. "Did you two catch stupid bats?"

Kilik blinked and pointed out, "Raphael, your bats aren't doing anything either."

Maxi said slowly, "Maybe all of the bats we caught are stupid."

"Idiots!" said Mitsurugi. "Nothing that actually has a sense of smell will come near me. BECAUSE I STINK TO HIGH HEAVENS!" He raised both arms up high and besides the immediate view of lots of armpit hair, the aroma of his armpit sweat caused the bats nearest to him to fly away in terror at the offensive odour.

Even though Raphael, Maxi and Kilik were up high, they caught a whiff of it and they immediately plugged their nose with their hands. Kilik gagged and said, "I... I am not prepared for this. I have never trained for this kind of situation in my life." He raised one hand to the cavern's ceiling. "Master! I have failed the way of the Ling Sheng-su! Forgive meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

"What the hell!" Maxi choked out, "When was the last time you took a bath man? That's just gross."

Mitsurugi scowled. "I had to fight my way through one hundred lizardmen when they attacked my team's treehouse. I then had to run halfway across Raphael's ridiculously long amusement park as fast as I can to catch up to my team that ditched me behind. Then I had to find an entrance into this stupid underground cult stage. After that, I swam through a lake of gross green slime. I accidentally swam the wrong way and fell into an underground river of sewage!" He pointed to the lizardmen and broken Astaroths around him and roared," THEN I HAD TO FIGHT ANOTHER HUNDRED LIZARDMEN AND ASTAROTHS. I'M DROWNING IN MY OWN SWEAT! YOU COWARDS BETTER BELIEVE THAT IT WON'T BE MY SWORD THAT KILLS YOU. IT WILL BE MY STENCH!" The manly samurai opened his arms and his eyes burned. "I dare you to come near me, cowards." When they didn't move, Mitsurugi slowly smiled. "Prepare yourselves."

"Aeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh!" All the bats, Raphael, Maxi and Kilik screamed and ran for it as the samurai started scaling the walls to get to them.

"Don't you dare come near me! I, the great Raphael Sorel cannot afford to smell like a hobo!"

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING A HOBO YOU POMPOUS VAMPIRE!"

* * *

><p>At the east side...<p>

"Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey alllllllllllllll!" Tira yelled loudly, in a bid to attract some attention. She, her evil boyfriend and the three koreans had been ordered by Zaslamel to head in this direction. But so far, nothing had attacked them. Except for dust bunnies. She was hungry, tired, sleepy and she hadn't killed anything in over six hours. With nothing to satisfy her addiction, she was displaying all the symptoms of a recluse. Her pigtails was standing up even higher than usual and her right eye was twitching. Every few minutes, her hands would shake and everyone would quickly give her some space so that she wouldn't accidentally swing her ring blade and lop off a limb.

"Achhoooo!" Seong-Mina sneezed and rubbed her nose. They were heading along a giant open corridor to a swinging bridge that connected to the other side. On both sides, that creepy snake woman statue that has shone up time and time again through the whole place, was once again stage decorations here. She held up a giant torch of blue flames that illuminated her snake tail and creepy blue stone eyes. Above them, there was nothing but stone ceiling. The korean woman looked over nervously to see a giant underground lake of blue water shone underneath the bridge, stretching as far as the eyes could see.

*****BANG BANG BANG*

The three Koreans clasped their hands over their ears as Tira whacked Nightmare on the head. "IS THERE ANYONE HERE?!"

"HOW DARE YOU HIT THE KNIGHT OF ULTIMATE DARKNESS!"

Tira screamed back, "WELL I'M YOUR GIRLFRIEND, OH KNIGHT OF ULTIMATE DARKNESS. SO DEAL WITH IT!" She grabbed his helmet and ran ahead, banging it against her ring blade as she went while the headless Azure Knight blindly ran after her.

"Give me back my head!"

Yun-Seong held up both hands and cried, "Hey man! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!" The two tumbled to the ground when Nightmare crashed into the Korean.

Tira just ignored what was happening behind her as she continued shouting. "HEY! IS THERE ANYONE HERE? WHAT THE HELL?! I DIDN'T GO THROUGH THE ACT OF BEING TWIN CIRCUS PERFORMERS THAT UNDERWENT PLASTIC SURGERY FOR NOTHING #$%#^ #^!" Tira was practically frothing at the mouth as no one answered her.

*BANG BANG BANG*

Tira whacked the helmet some more. "IF SOMEBODY DOESN'T COME OUT AND LET ME SHRED THEM TO PIECES, I WILL FIND YOU ALL AND SHRED YOU TO PIECES INSTEAD!"

"In the name of Wolfkrone, I order you to stop that infernal racket and stupid nonsensical gibberish that you're spewing out of your mouth!" Hilde, Siegfried, Cassandra and Sophitia showed up, looking extremely crossed as they stood at the other end of the bridge. The princess of Wolfkrone hit the butt of her spear on the ground and grouched, "We could hear you from 3 of Astaroth's stages away! Do you realize that you idiots picked the dead of the night to invade this place? It's 3AM! Only gamers and super keeners stay up at this time!" Hilde then squinted her eyes. "And why is Nightmare headless?"

"Oh." Tira looked down at the helmet in her hand before casually tossing it behind her. "Yo Nightmare, catch!"

Nightmare backstepped and held up his hands to catch his head but the throw was bad so it clonked Hwang on the head and knocked him out. On the bright side, it bounced off at the right angle to connect back on to Nightmare's neck.

Cassandra stared for a few seconds before rolling her eyes. "I almost thought those people can't get any dumber."

"What did you say?" Seong-Mina's eyes flashed daggers. "Enough talk, we've come here on important business."

Siegfried brushed back his blonde hair and said, "If you want to apply and become Lord Kunpaeteku's newest minions, book an appointment with the secretary."

"No, we're here for Ashlotte!" Yun-Seong shouted, brandishing his White Storm in front of him. "We will fight you if we have to."

Sophitia pointed at him and laughed. "You'll have to cross the bridge first first." When they made to cross, she raised a finger. Waving it back and forth, she tutted them. "I don't think so. Why don't you take a closer look at that thing before you walk."

Nightmare looked down at Tira. "Well, what are you waiting for? Go and test if it's safe minion."

A purple vein pulsed on Tira's forehead and she said said through gritted teeth, "What did you say?"

"Are you deaf? The Azure Knight commands you to aeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" Nightmare screamed as she shoved him in front. He flailed wildly and his evil sword, Soul Edge, grew slightly nauseous. If it had a mouth, it might have barfed all over him. But since it only had a sick looking yellow eye on the blade, it just rolled up and fainted. When Nightmare regained his balance, he stood still and he even held in his breath. When nothing happened, he said, "Hey! The bridge is perfectly safe-" Before he could finish, the stone bridge trembled and shook. With a girly scream, he ran back to Tira's side. "THAT THING IS LESS SAFE THAN ANYTHING MADE IN CHINA!"

Hilde, Siegfried, Cassandra and Sophitia laughed on the other side. Hilde said to her comrades. "Let's go back and report to Lord Kunpaeteku that this area is secured."

Cassandra yawned, "Maybe I can catch up on my sleep too."

As they headed back, Hilde stayed behind and grinned. "May victory forever elude you."

"Shut up! When I get over there, I'll have your head!" Tira shouted as she jumped up and down in anger. When Hilde turned on her back and walked away, she pulled Seong-Mina, Yun-Seong and Nightmare into a group huddle. "Does anyone with a brain here, have any plan to get across?" When Nightmare was about to raise his hand, she huffed, "Nightmare, we both know you don't have one."

"Hey!"

"It's true," the koreans chimed in. "You're only good at eating souls and killing people for souls."

"Fineeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee," Nightmare said as he left the group huddle. "YOU CAN CALL FOR ME ONCE YOU HAVE A PLAN!" He moodily sat down beside the unconscious Hwang and grouched, "What do they know? I, the Azure knight, am the epitome of evil and awesomeness. If I put in the effort, I could totally come up with a plan." He nudged Hwang and said, "You think I have a brain right?" When Hwang didn't answer (no duh he's unconscious), Nightmare looked up and clenched his ugly arm, determined to prove to them that he did have a brain. "Hey guys!"

Tira, Yun-Seong and Seong-Mina looked over at him. "What?"

"Why don't we just swim across?!" Nightmare said happily, running over to the edge and pointing to the lake.

Tira grouched, "There's probably a sea monster or leeches in there. It is Kunpaeteku's domain. The place is full of monsters." In answer, they suddenly noticed a shark fin moving through the waters. "Exactly..." muttered Tira.

Seong-Mina added, "And the water looks disgusting."

Yun-Seong pointed at Nightmare. "Can you even swim?"

"Of course I can swim!" lied Nightmare.

The swordsman said bluntly, "You're a giant suit of armor with nothing inside except for an evil spirit. You'd sink like a rock."

"FINE! I'LL COME UP WITH ANOTHER PLAN!" Nightmare shouted.

And so, the group continued brainstorming... with Nightmare derping in the background beside an unconscious Hwang. Which was rather sad because Hwang probably had the biggest brain in that small group and he probably could have come up with something.

* * *

><p>At the west side...<p>

Cervantes was having trouble rolling his wheel chair over a bump. He, Zasalamel, Rock and Taki were currently passing the cult's garden... of evil. Anyways, the undead pirate growled as he tried to push his wheel chair forward but he was obviously not very successful. "Can I get alittle help here?!" shouted the pirate.

"Quiet Cervantes, we're busy analyzing this underground garden of evil," Taki said solemnly as she strolled around, kicking up some dirt as she walked. Patches of unknown leafy vegetables stuck up high, with a few spots of purple on them. They seemed to be everywhere... Her sharp eyes took in their surroundings carefully. It looked like a cave. But the walls was awashed in green light from the unnatural green fire torches that hung on the holders. Above them, shiny crystals sparkled and cast some white lights of its own.

"There's a strange feeling I'm getting from this place," Rock said nervously, looking this way and that at the vegetation they were surrounded by. It was almost like they were in a mini jungle.

Zasalamel walked around a random giant apple that was sitting in the dirt. It was probably the world's biggest fruit. Whoever grew the thing was either a really good farmer, used a bunch of veggie growth chemicals or... they used magic. He put one hand over his gold eye and began to chant a spell under his breath, but his concentration was broken in three seconds when Cervantes screamed.

"HELP! HELPPPPP!"

With a sigh, Zasalamel asked, "What now OH MY GOD!" He jumped when he saw that some kind of giant venus flytrap had glomped onto Cervantes and was trying to eat him. "Taki! Rock!"

"On it!" Taki took out her ninja blades and dashed over to help. But then a nearby bulbous plant spat out some yellow gunk at her, making her stumble backward and she wiped furiously at her face. "What is this?"

"Don't worry! Rock's got you!" shouted Rock as he grabbed onto Cervantes leg and pulled. With a hard yank, the pirate flew out of the plant's jaws and into the wall.

"Yea... thanks."

Zasalamel and Rock stared as he slowly began sliding down the wall before hitting the floor, wet with plant juice and drool.

"This is disgusting," Taki said as she wiped the stuff away from her face.

"Wait!" Rock said. He pointed to her face and squinted. "Your skin... it looks smoother."

Taki blinked. "What?" She wiped the stuff off some leaves and touched her face. It did feel smother and silkier. Looking at the plant, she said, "Well, it looks there is a good thing to this garden then."

"Think again."

The four looked over as Ivy, Setsuka, Talim and Yoshimitsu arrived. The leader of the Manji clan noticed the pirate and walked over to him. "Whew!" wheezed Yoshimitsu. "Tis thee most foulest stench I've ever smelleth!"

Cervantes held up a weak hand. "You should see what happens when I'm at sea for months. I smell like fish..."

Talim plugged her nose and waved a hand, making the stench move towards Zasalamel, Rock and Taki by using the wind.

The three tried not to gag. Holding in his breath, Zasalamel pointed a finger at them. "You've saved us the-" He took in a quick breath. "trouble of looking for-" He took in another breath. "you. Hand over Ashlotte's-" He took in another breath. "body parts and surrender or else-" Zasalamel rolled his eyes. "OH forget it!" Snapping his fingers, he opened a black hole. With a triumphant grin on his face, he said, "There! Much better." The forceful suction power sucked in all the bad smell and at the same time, it sucked in Yoshimitsu. For some strange reason, the manji leader tried to evade the black hole by using his sword, spinning it like the wings of a helicopter to fly away. Which was pretty stupid. Because all that happened was that he flew backwards into the blackhole, all the while spinning his sword like a moron.

Setsuka stabbed her sword deeply into the dirt to try to hold on but that was pretty dumb too. All she did was carve a straight line though the dirt as she was sucked in. "Master! I've failed youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!" she cried, ashamed that her lightning fast moves could not save her from a black hole.

"Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiind!" shouted Talim. Now no one was sure what that was supposed to do and it was categorized as a stupid move too. All that happened was that she got sucked in with more air than usual.

Ivy would have been sucked in next but she was smart enough to know that at least if she went down, she was going to take Cervantes down with her as well. "Ensnare!" Her whip lashed onto Cervantes foot and she shouted to Zasalamel, "IF you suck me in, Cervantes goes in too."

"Help! Help!" cried the undead pirate. He grabbed onto two random plants and all that accomplished was that he just uprooted turnips as he was sucked into the blackhole. As the vortex dragged them in, Cervantes was grabbing at anything he could get his hands on to stop his imminent demise. The vegetables he was pulling up made the whole thing look alittle ridiculous, as carrots, radishes, beets and turnips were flying everywhere before flying into the vortex. As he was sucked in, he shouted, "How could you sacrifice meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

When the black hole closed, Taki looked over to Zasalamel. "You know he's going to be make a big fuss like a baby once he gets out."

The black magician shrugged. "I'll placate him with cake." When Takie and Rock stared at him with disbelief, he sighed. "Fine. I'll sign him a cheque of one million dollars."

"IN THE NAME OF THE SPIRITS!" Rock said, putting a hand on his heart. "How did you get so much money?"

Zasalamel grinned. "Having the ability to see the future helps with buying stock."

Taki slowly narrowed her eyes. "If you're so rich... why are we living in a treehouse?"

"Uhhhhh..." Zasalamel said nervously, "I was... shopping around but I've grown rather fond of that treehouse. I suppose we can buy a real house since it's now burned down." He scratched at his bald head. "Anyways, let keep going. Now that we don't have to deal with Cervantes being unable to roll over bumps every ten minutes, our search speed should dramatically increase."

"Hey wait," Rock said as he tilted his head and pointed to one of the vegetables that Cervantes had uprooted. He had never seen such a weird looking vegetable. Granted he was more of a hunter and preferred to hunt animals like bears, tigers, and the occasional giant snake if he was feeling lazy, but he had seen alot of vegetables in his life even if he didn't eat them. Picking it up, he looked at it quizzically. "Hey, it kinda looks like a baby."

Zasalamel stared at it for a moment before shouting, "That's a mandragora! DROP IT!"

At that moment, the mandragora plant opened its eyes and began wailing at the top of its lungs. Out of shock, Rock threw it away from him and when it hit the ground, it just wailed even louder. What happened next didn't help the situation. The bear that was supposed to have been guarding the garden, came in and it had stealthily approached Zasalamel as they were distracted by the mandragora. It growled at the intruders angrily before standing up on its legs menacingly.

Taki blanched and pointed at him. "You... have a bear behind you."

Calmly, he turned around scoffed. If he could take care of Setsuka, Ivy, Talim and Yoshimitsu without breaking a sweat, there was no way he couldn't deal with this. "No worries. I got this-" Zasalamel was cut short as the bear randomly karate chopped his head.

Taki and Rock watched as Zasalamel slowly swayed on his feet before dropping down into the dirt. "Well..." Rock rolled his neck and cracked his knuckles. "It's been awhile since I've done some bear wrestling."

* * *

><p>In the meanwhile... Xianghua had somehow managed to become completely lost and to make matters worst, she didn't have anyone with her. What happened was that she saw a pink mushroom growing by the banks of the lake and it was pink. Since you don't see pink mushrooms everyday, she couldn't help but wander away to pick it. Kilik did have a fondness for mushrooms, so maybe he'd like a dish she would cook for him with the thing. She quickly tucked it into the slip of her belt but when she looked up, everyone was gone.<p>

There weren't any footprints to follow so she wandered around aimlessly. To her surprisingly good luck, since most of Kunpaeteku's henchman and Raphael's group had went off to search in the four cardinal direction, the heart of the cult was left unguarded. So somehow, she had managed to wander up to a door that was labeled 'Secret Evil Lab'. Looking around, she noticed that no one was around so she tried the door. Of course it was locked so with a sigh, she took out her sword. "I will cut my path... through this door!" Her sharp blade easily sliced through the handle and she kicked the door in. Poking her head in, she looked around with wide eyes.

There was a billion vials and flasks of potions sitting on the counter. Some were being heated by a bunsen burner, others were being diluted and some others were just corked and waiting to be used. The lab was well ventilated since no chemist would want to be poisoned by the chemical fumes. Slowly, she reached over to flick on the light switch. A few bulbs lit up but the lab was still relatively dark. Walking into the room, Xianghua went around to take a peek at some of the chemicals. But a sign caught her attention.

'PLEASE PUT ON YOUR LAB COATS, EYE GOGGLES AND GLOVES IF YOU DON'T WANT TO DIE. THANKS.'

Xianghua pursed her lips. She could just not listen but she was worried that if she accidentally came into contact with something, she might become infertile. Then she would never be able to have a kid with Kilik! So for the thought of their future kid, she put on the safety equipment.

Strolling around the room, she took a peek at some of the glass cabinets before wandering back to the tables of flasks and vials. Her eyes caught on to a crystal blue bottle and she gawked at it. "Wow, this one is so pretty." Holding it up, she shook it slightly before turning around to read the label. When she read it, she nearly dropped it in astonishment. 'Cure for Evil by Isabella Valentine. Also works great as shampoo.'

Xianghua looked up as someone entered the lab with a piece of round log. Before she could make a break for it, the man-scientist said, "Ah! There you are Ms. Shroam."

She looked down at the coat and noted that the name tag did say 'Ms. Shroam.' Looking up at the man, she giggled and said, "Uhhhh yes! It's me, Ms. Shroam. How can I help you?"

"Oh, I was just wondering where that Cure for Evil potion is. Things aren't looking too good so I was ordered to destroy the potion." The man then pointed. "Oh you have it right there! How convenient!"

Xianghua could feel the sweat starting to slide down her neck. With a nervous giggle, she said, "It-it's ok! I'll destroy it myself. Please report back to the great master, Kunpaeteku that it's taken care of."

"Oh no no." The man held the log in his hand. "I already got the log all ready to destroy the potion."

Xianghua looked at him, confused on how a log would be used to destroy the Cure for Evil potion. "What?"

Seeing her confusion, he said, "See! You don't know how to use the log to destroy the potion, Ms. Shroam. Give me the potion and I'll do it."

When he came towards her, she quickly held out her hand. "Wait! Here, give me the log. I'll show you that I do know how to use it."

"Errr... ok."

When he handed over the big piece of log, she took it in her hand and smiled at him sweetly. "Just kidding! I don't know how to use it to destroy the potion. But I do know how to use it like this!" She whacked his head with it and when he fell down with a thud, she grinned. "That wasn't too bad. Now, time to find Zasalamel and give him this potion."

As she left the laboratory of evil, she tossed the log behind her. It rolled through the table, destroy and spilling all the vials and flasks before it rolled down to the ground to come to a rest beside the unconscious man.

And so... that's how you use a log to destroy any type of potion.

* * *

><p>Up in the North...<p>

"Here's some money for youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu. And some for youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu. And youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu." Algol was handing out handfuls of cash to Kunpaetku's guards so that they could let him, Edgemaster, Olcadan and Kalana through as well as give them the map for the place. This was because a) Ever since Olcadan and Edgemaster had their hands bitten, they were now handicapped. Of course they could still fight pretty well with one hand and two legs, but their age combined would be over a thousand. Algol didn't really want to risk them exerting themselves since that poison might spread to the rest of their bodies. The one hand that was infected, was the size of a swollen baseball glove. If their entire body swelled up like that, the hospital fee was probably going to cost more than the bribery he was using.

B) Bribing the guards to tell him where Ashlotte was was going to make this painful trip go by much faster. Because Astaroth and Ashlotte's honeymoon flight was soon coming up and he didn't want the money for their flight to be wasted. Afterall, he had to put in alot of advertisement to get the money.

Once all the guards just let them pass and gave them a map, Algol waved it for the group to see. "See, I told you money solves everything."

Astaroth grumbled, "Or I could have just killed all those maggots and then take the map from their dead bodies."

Algol retorted, "But you wouldn't be able to obtain the password for the door to the room that leads to Ashlotte's body parts."

Olcadan rolled his eyes. "That password was so obvious, we probably could have guessed it instead of forking over five thousand dollars."

Algol rolled his eyes. "Whatever. It's not my money anyways.' (He had taken the money out of all the Soul Calibur characters' paychecks.)

Zwei coughed as he pointed at the map Algol was holding. "We still have to go through snake pits, the lake of sharks, the cave of wailing mandragora that's guarded by a man-eating bear and a tunnel of bees."

With a scoff, Algol said, "I am the Hero King. Such measly trials will be a piece of cake."

"Pride is the road to ruin," Edgemaster said wisely, unconsciously scratching his swollen giant hand.

Kalana hit him on the shoulder with her fan. "Stop scratching. It'll make it worse."

"Yea," Olcadan shot in. "Have some self control. You should follow my example, and not scratch."

Edgemaster sucked in a deep breath. As the master of the edge, he should have more self control but also, he was not going to lose to a half man half bird love rival. Shooting Olcadan a death glare, he said, "Well, let's see who'll last longest. I am confident that with my years of training, I will surpass you."

"Bring it on old man."

"You're old too!"

Viola looked over at Zwei. "We should just ditch them."

Zwei ran a hand through his hair tiredly. "You know, I bet that even though we've just bribed half of Kunpaetku's men, obtained a map and have some of the most experienced fighters with us, we're probably going to be the most useless group in this place."

"LET'S HURRY UP AND HEAD TO THE TUNNEL OF BEES YOU MAGGOTS!"

At the tunnel of bees...

It was a round and bright tunnel that was slicked with honey. The buzzing of a bajillion bees droned out everything and the group nervously stood in front of the entrance. But Astaroth's heart was filled with love for his love and he walked fearlessly through the tunnel. The group stared at him and Algol murmured, "Such courage... even I, the King of Heroes, am impressed."

Viola then pointed out the obvious. "He's in his SCVI form. His whole body is a hard red rocky layer. No bees would be able to sting him anyways."

The group was silent for a few minutes until they said, "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..."

Olcadan shot Edgemaster a sideways glance. "Shall we get going? I bet I'll reach the end before you."

"Let us see who'll reach it first," Edgemaster replied, stroking his long white beard with his unswollen hand.

The two quickly began running though the tunnel like madmen and soon, their cries could easily heard by the group. Kalana sighed. "I would be surprised if their entire body wasn't swollen by the time this is over." She too, began heading into the tunnel. But with her advance knowledge of the wind art, she kept a constant wind around her body so that no bees could get close. Every time one did, it would be blown away.

As for Algol... "Hahaha! Good thing I can teleport!" With that, he just poofed to the end of the tunnel, leaving behind Zwei and Viola.

The two looked at each other before turning around to look for a differnt way. Because there was no way, they were going to walk into that stupid tunnel.

As they walked through a bee free tunnel, they came to a stop as Aeon and Voldo barred their path. The two hissed at the intruders and raised their weapons, ready for a fight. But they were surprised by what happened next.

"Oh great! Can you just capture us and take us to your master?" Zwei asked coolly.

Viola nodded at what he said. "It would be better than following those other guys."

Aeon and Voldo blinked and looked at each other before shrugging. Walking over to the two, they took their weapons and began pushing them to walk towards the heart of the cult so that Kunpaetku would be able to dish out the punishment for the intruders.

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><p>Darkwings13: Soooooo... is this chapter even funny? Lol I haven't written in a very long time, especially for comedy. So if it sucks, please tell me I suck! :O But of course, add in constructive criticisms and suggestions on how I can make it better. Please and thank you!<p>

Anyways, I wanted to apolgize for the long wait! I've been gone from fanfiction for so long! I'm so sorry my readers. But I'll try to be up and update more frequently. Remember, I have made a promise I will always finish my stories :)

Holy Calibur we've reached chapter 40! Oh muh gerd! XD

I honestly have no idea how long this story will be. There's just so much random situations and stuff that I come up with. Anyways, thank you all for reading. It means alot to me to have your support and I appreciate that you take the time to read Calibur World. I am happy to answer any questions anyone might have for this chapter and for what the story will hold in the future if you're curious. If you take the time to write me a review and tell me your opinions and such, I will do my best to reply back as best as possible. Thank you all so much for reading, for supporting and for all the love and attention his story has recieved. I honestly never though I could reach this many reviews and favorites. When I returned to fanfiction and saw that it was still getting daily views and that many of you were eager for the next chapter, I got back to work as soon as possible. Thank you to all my readers.

So! Will Mitsurugi make Raphael smell like a hobo? How will Rock's bear wrestling match go? Will Xianghua reach Zasalamel with the cure in time? Will Tira's group be able to cross the bridge? Who will take possession of the mighty log next? Will Olcadan or Edgemaster reach the end of the tunnel of bees first? So many questions... favorite or put this story on alert to stay updated! Huggles and see you next time!


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